The Bloody Marriage Law!
by ebatcl
Summary: Bad: Ron's new attitude. Worse: Ministry's new marriage law. Worst: Her new husband - Draco Malfoy. Can Hermione, Harry and the gang survive the madness that ensues at their seventh year at Hogwarts when a new law is made mandatory for all students?
1. Back at Hogwarts!

**A/N: This is my first Harry Potter fan fiction. After reading a few at TWCSL, I realized I really liked the Dramione pairing. I also liked the whole marriage law thing, so I've decided to combine the two. I want this to be a fun filled story (though this chapter is not quite filled with silliness), as some of the marriage law fics seem to be really serious. Hence, I'll love it if you all would suggest something funny that you would like to see played out. I've also decided on the major pairings (which I'll not reveal in this chapter), but suggestions are welcome too.**

**Now, on with the story. Hope you all like it :).**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

The five students walked together as they made their way from the Gryffindor common room to the Great Hall for breakfast. All were lost in their own thoughts, except for Hermione. She looked at her friends and noticed that not everyone was as somber as they were pretending to be. Harry and Ginny did look a bit a sad, but the sideways glances, furtive looks and the hint of a smile on their lips suggested that they were at least glad that they were finally able to be together without any hindrance. Neville actually looked quite happy, although he was trying his best to not show it, probably still savoring the triumph of having killed Nagini and hence making it easy for Harry to defeat Voldemort. It was only Ron who seemed all lost and unhappy. He had not taken Fred's death well.

Hermione's heart went out to him. She loved Ron more than any other boy she had ever loved. However, although ecstatic at having kissed her during the great fight, Ron had slowly withdrawn into himself once the war was over. He had never kissed Hermione after that. In fact, he had not even shown any indication that he was interested in her anymore. Then again, Ron was not interested in anything anymore. The only times he smiled these days were when he beat Harry in homely Quidditch matches between the two. Even then also, there seemed to be an evil quality to his happiness. It was as if he was sneering at the boy-who-lived-and-finally-fulfilled-the-prophecy-of-killing-the-dark-lord for loosing at a game between the two.

Hermione sighed. Although everyone kept saying that Ron was just upset over Fred's death, she couldn't bring herself to believe it. So what if Ron had lost a brother? Every student attending Hogwarts had lost someone or the other in the great war. Hell, some students lost their own lives in the hands of the evil lord. Cedric Diggory, Colin Creevy...the list was endless. And moreover, Ron was not the only one who had lost a brother. Ginny did too, but she didn't go around brooding or being nasty to her friends. In fact, she and Harry had grown closer over the summer due to all that they each had to face during the war. Why could not Ron and Hermione do that too?

Just then, Luna came bouncing up to them.

"Hey guys! Going for breakfast?"

"What do you think?" Ron sneered. Harry's eyes widened, while Neville looked shocked.

"Ron!" Hermione and Ginny admonished at the same time.

Ron huffed angrily, and left them all as he went into the great hall alone.

"Luna, I'm so sorry..."

"It's okay, 'Mione. Ron's upset. I already knew that."

"How?" Neville asked curiously. Harry and Hermione were at the Burrow during the whole summer when they got their invitations to come and finish their seventh year at Hogwarts. However, Neville was not there to witness Ron's personality change, and had no idea what had happened to his usually-jolly fellow Gryffindor. Naturally, he was aghast by Ron's behavior. After the war, he thought a secret bond of eternal friendship had formed between the six of them.

"It's the Nargles," Luna replied dreamily.

Harry and Ginny tried to suppress their smiles, where else Hermione looked relieved that Luna's feelings were not hurt. She wrapped her arms around the strange girl and hugged her.

"They are the best, Luna, your Nargles are."

Neville looked over at Harry and Ginny, and simply shook his head thinking that Luna was a mystery that he would never be able to solve. The five of them then slowly made their way to the great hall.

There were more students this year than the previous ones as all those who went hiding during the war had returned. While Luna went and joined Terry Boot, Michael Corner and Cho Chang at the Ravenclaw table, the rest four went at the Gryffindor table and sat beside Dean and Seamus. Although all four noticed that it was only the seventh year students that were present in the great hall, they were more worried about their friend. Ron was nowhere in sight.

"He's at the far end, near the teachers' table, if you want to know," Seamus said as he saw Hermione craning her neck to look for Ron. "And I'm mighty glad for that. Man, he was ready to bite my head off, and all I asked was where the rest of you were." Seamus scowled.

"So, what's gotten into him?" Dean piped up. Harry, Ginny and Hermione looked at one another. Neville gave them a long look.

"I'd like to know that too." He said as he sat down. "'Cause, you know, I don't have Nargles to inform me about his mood swings."

Dean and Seamus started at the same time.

"What the hell are Nargles?" Dean questioned.

"Mood swings? Isn't that what girls' get when they are PSMing?" Seamus asked, confused.

Hermione giggled at Seamus, Harry went a bit red and grabbed a nearby goblet, and Ginny rolled her eyes.

"It's PMSing, Seamus, not PSMing. It stands for Pre Menstrual Syndrome." Harry choked and spluttered the pumpkin juice he just swallowed, while Dean scrunched up his nose in disgust. Seamus looked confused, as did Neville.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake!" Ginny threw up her hands and looked angrily at Seamus and Neville. "Considering the amount of time you spend secretly reading _Skanky Bitches' secrets revealed_, one would think you would know all about girls."

Again, both boys started talking simultaneously. This time, it was Seamus and Neville.

"Hey, how did you know about that?" Seamus cried indignantly. "And it's _Hot Witches: Secrets revealed, _not _Skanky Bitches' secrets revealed._"

"I don't read _Skan_..whatever you said. I live with my grandma, for Godric's sake." Neville replied, looking horrified.

"Sorry, Neville." Ginny muttered, glaring at Seamus, while Hermione continued, "Just because you cover them with a text book, it doesn't mean we can't see what you actually read while sitting in a corner of the Gryffindor common room, Seamus."

Seamus looked surprised to find that his secret was not a secret after all, and answered in a reverent voice, "Wow, Hermione, you truly are the Brightest Witch of our Age." Hermione narrowed her eyes at Seamus to see if was making fun of her, but when she found Seamus still looking at her with wonderment, she simply shook her head. Harry and Dean grinned at Seamus.

Just then, the headmistress stepped up behind the golden owl, and called for everyone's attention.

"Welcome! I'm glad to see you all here." The headmistress gave them all a sad smile. "It's a common knowledge that education is a nation's backbone. With this belief, despite having offers from prestigious posts and astounding salaries, he had remained at Hogwarts and dedicated his life to ensure a better future for his pupils, for his country. I want to take this moment and remind you all of the greatest wizard who had ever lived - Albus Dumbledore."

Immediately all eyes went to the Slytherin table. By now, everyone knew that Dumbledore himself had planned on Snape killing the former headmaster, and what with Snape being murdered, all was forgiven, especially when Snape's double-crossing of the dark lord became public knowledge. However, the students were not quite as generous towards a certain blond boy as they were towards the former head of the Slytherin house.

Harry, Ginny, Neville and Hermione didn't look though. If they had, they would have found Parkinson, Nott, Goyle and Zabini glaring at everyone else in the class. However, the person whose attention the rest of the room were seeking showed no emotion. The boy who was dubbed the Slytherin Prince, stared sideways, at the current headmistress.

"Albus Dumbledore may not be with us today, but I want his mission to continue. _He_ would want me to continue what he had started. When I talk about education, I don't mean it academically only. Dumbledore wanted each of his students to not only be an intellectual individual, but he also wanted them to be whole - a person without prejudice, a person without bias, and more importantly, a person who was happy." At this the headmistress's eyes filled with tears, as did a lot of her students', because this was something they all knew - Dumbledore had always looked happy. Wiping the tears from her eyes, Minerva McGonagall continued.

"Dumbledore followed the rules of this school, hence he sorted all newcomers to different houses. However, personally, he never favored anyone. To him, every student was important." Harry and his friends knew this better than anyone. Dumbledore valued them all, hence he wanted Snape to kill him instead of Draco Malfoy, so as to save the soul of the latter from being scarred.

"During the war, we had personally seen how true Dumbledore's beliefs were. All of you, despite being in different houses, have fought together for your freedom from a maniac self-proclaimed tyrant." Again, this was something Harry and his friends knew better than anyone. Fighting together with someone from a different house was not quite astounding as was having Narcissa Malfoy lie to the dark lord, risking her own life to save Harry's.

"And now, even the Ministry of Magic believes it to be true." At this, McGonagall frowned a little, and looked sideways. It was then that Harry, Ginny, and Hermione noticed the figure standing in front of a door at the corner from the teachers' table.

"Kingsley?" They all muttered together, giving each other questioning looks. The headmistress faced the students again, and continued.

"The Ministry, however, have come up with a different way of uniting you all. According to the Ministry, this new system will further ensure that prejudices are put aside, and a new bias-free world is born. Personally, I'm not so sure, so I'll let the minster take it from here. Mr Shacklebolt, if you will?"

By now, everyone had noticed the Minister of Magic, and were murmuring among themselves.

"This can't be good," Hermione said in a nervous voice to Harry and Ginny, both of whom looked worried.

"Students!" The minister bellowed. "Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts." Shacklebolt said with a smile. "I know there have been many changes in your personal lives, as many of you have lost close family members during the second great war. It has been a few months since the dark lord was defeated and killed, and hopefully by now, most of you have learned to cope with your loses."

Harry, Ginny, and Hermione all looked at where Ron was sitting, and then looked at each other.

"What you must have also noted that change is inevitable, and sometimes there is just nothing you could do about what happens in your lives. I know this is quite soon, but another change is upon you now - something permanent."

By now, the great hall had quieted down as everyone glanced anxiously at one another. Not having fully recovered from the emotional scars left by the battle with Voldemort, the students were a bit scared about what Kingsley Shacklebolt was about to say.

"Voldemort may have been defeated, but he had also caused great damage to the wizarding world before his death. Nearly seventy percent of Great Britain's witches and wizards have been killed. Also, the divide between the purebloods and muggle-borns still remain as both parties are not aware as how to behave now that the dark lord has fallen."

Once again, except for the Slytherins and the teachers, all eyes in the the great hall were at the boy-who-almost-killed-Dumbledore. Once again, Draco Malfoy sat still and emotionless.

"Before I reveal what is this change that will soon befall you, I must warn you all that if anyone denies to comply with the ministry's new law, sever consequences await that witch or wizard. And when I say severe, I mean it. Only with a Dementor's kiss or death could anyone hope to avoid this law. There are no other ways out."

At this, everyone in the great hall gasped, all horrified at what the minister had just said.

"And now, the new law that the ministry had passed secretly yesterday - the marriage law. According to this law, all witches and wizards aged seventeen or above will be required to get married. The ministry hopes that through marriage, the divide that had been created between the different classes of the wizarding population would somewhat lessen, and as the marriages will eventually lead to having children, hence the tension about the decimation of witches and wizards could also be lowered to a tolerable level."

The three Gryffindors, along with their friends and everyone else in the great hall, sighed in relief. During the summer, they have all heard whispers of this new marriage law. They heard it was the ministry's last resort at their attempt at uniting the wizarding population. Harry, Ginny, and Hermione supposed this was the reason why only seventh years were present for breakfast. After all, in the wizarding world, seventeen was the age of consent. Hermione was a bit shocked that she had not noticed that everyone bar the seventh years were not allowed in the great hall this morning. She supposed that all her worries about Ron had distracted her.

"This, I'm sure, you already knew." Shacklebolt said loudly, breaking up all the conversations that started to take place after the minister's last sentence. "The law however, is more serious than you all think. For starters, when I said everyone above seventeen has to get married, I didn't mean that you could get married whenever you wanted. You all need to get married - before classes end this school year."

Again gasps broke out in the great hall. In some cases though, like Harry and Ginny's, the students didn't mind as much as most of their friends.

"You all will also need to produce a child within a year after your marriage," the minister continued.

This time Harry and Ginny were not as happy as they had been a few seconds ago. Sure, they loved each other and wanted to get married, and also have a few babies in a few years time, but they were not quite ready to become parents before they turned twenty.

"Finally, the one condition I really feel bad about forcing on you, but according to the different ministers and also some of Dumbledore's close associates, this is for the best." As he said it, Kingsley Shacklebolt really looked bad, especially as his eyes settled on his fellow Order members at the Gryffindor table. It was as if he was pleading them with his eyes for them to understand the predicament he was in. It was as if he was sure that after he made the next announcement, he would end up being the most-hated wizard of the Great Britain.

He was not wrong.

"As age differences, personalities, intellectual levels and backgrounds have to be taken into consideration, for the ministry have all these information about each and every witch and wizard, the final stipulation of the marriage law is that... it is the ministry that will decide who will be married to whom."

Silence fell over the great hall as the students found themselves shocked into being speechless. The only sound came after what seemed like ages from the mouth of none other than one Ronald Weasley.

"Bloody hell!"

**A/N: What do you all think? Suggestions are welcome as to how to make this story an enjoyable one :).**


	2. Consequences of the law!

**A/N: I'm not sure what you all think about this story. Hope you all are enjoying it :). Anyways, I don't know how one deals with teenage problems as it's been a few years since I was one. Hence, I'll write whatever silliness comes to mind ;). Be warned, they may not always make sense. Also, I'm on a roll now, so I'll probably update quite frequently, but once it wears off, I don't know what I'll do. If any of you had checked my profile, you'll notice that I've a lot of unfinished stories. They are all Twilight related. However, I want to move away from those bold stories for the time being, and just be an idiot :-D.**

**So here's the next chapter. Once again, views, comments, and suggestions are very welcome. I've read a few stories involving the marriage law, and I don't want to be repetitive, so if there's anything new you would like to read, let me know. I'm not very creative :(.**

**Now in this chapter, we are not yet dealing with our favorite teenage witches and wizards. This chapter contains mainly the outcome that our honored minister had to face because of 'the bloody marriage law' ;).**

**Enjoy!!!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

What did one do when he was awarded the prestigious title of being the _Most Hated Wizard_ of Britain? Kingsley Shacklebolt would have really liked to know. He had seen numerous changes in the world around him, especially in recent times - the dark lord's rise to power, Cornelius Fudge's downfall, death of the great Albus Dumbledore, along with those of some of the bravest witches and wizards of the country - 'Mad Eye' Moody, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Severus Snape, Nymphadora Tonks. Merlin, but even the last minister, Rufus Scrimgeour, had died like a hero.

Kingsley Shacklebolt had witnessed all these, and still survived. He had even survived the fight with the dark lord and lived to become the permanent minister of the Ministry of Magic. However, he didn't think he would survive the all-out open mutiny that the seventh year Hogwarts students declared upon hearing the condition of the new marriage law.

Kingsley sighed. Yesterday was definitely the worst day of his entire existence. The moment he had made the last stipulation of the marriage law known in the great hall during breakfast, things have gone downhill from there. After the two well-chosen words spoken by the last Weasley male, all hell broke loose in the great hall of Hogwarts. Kingsley Shacklebolt, honored Minister of magic, was attacked with bits and pieces of food from every angle imaginable. He distinctly remembered being hit by a few grapes, a slice of an apple pie, two chicken legs, a big yellow banana - which had actually managed to inflict a bit of pain, and one delicious strawberry and cream tart that had hit him straight on the nose before sliding down his lips and chin and onto the floor. Kingsley was surprised to see that it had been none other than Miss Granger who had thrown it.

Kingsley laughed out loud now, as he waited in the great hall, _again_, for the seventh years to show up. Thinking back to yesterday, Kingsley realized that if he was surprised that someone as calm and patient as Miss Granger had resorted to throwing things, it was no where near the shock that was etched on Miss Granger's face when she realized what she had done. She had simply stood there, with a horrified expression on her face, as if she had been petrified. Kingsley had slowly shaken his head. It was no wonder that it was Miss Granger who had used the strawberry and cream tart as the missile. She _was_, after all, the Brightest Witch of her Age, so naturally, her aim had been perfect.

However, Miss Granger's attack had not only immobilized herself, but her friends were at a loss for words and actions too. The headmistress, on the other hand, had snarled at everyone so loudly, that all students had stopped in mid-tracks as they stared at Minerva McGonagall, fear clearly obvious on their faces. Despite the mess he was in, Kingsley had smiled. He was sure that should Albus Dumbledore had been with them at that moment, he would have been proud of his former colleague. That snarl was more effective than any 'silent' that Dumbledore had ever shouted out.

"If any more food comes flying in the minister's direction, I'll hex the said witch or wizard to oblivion!" McGonagall had threatened.

Unfortunately for Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minerva's threat had achieved two things. First, the students had taken her warning seriously, hence no food had been thrown at the minister again. Secondly, though, Minerva's mention of 'hex' gave the students new ideas. They knew that their headmistress prohibited them to throw food at the minister, but she had not said anything about hexes.

Before he knew it, Kingsley was hit with the Bat Bogey Hex. Unlike with Miss Granger's tart, Kingsley Shacklebolt did not need to look up to see who had hexed him. The Bat Bogey hex was, after all, Ginny Weasley's speciality. Maybe Dumbledore was right, maybe Hogwarts did sort the students too soon. Kingsley was sure that this recent change in behavior would surely earn his fellow Order members places in the Slytherin house, or at the very least, the Ravenclaw house?

Soon, other hexes had followed. Shacklebolt, however, had lived quite a long life, and a happy one too. So, he supposed that was the end of his life. It may not have been the way he wanted to leave the earth, but one could hardly decide how they were going to die. At least he had his clothes on. It was more than what could be said of some witches and wizards who had been murdered while they were trying to relieve themselves in the toilet. Oh yeah, Kingsley was mighty glad that others wouldn't find his dead body with his pants down.

Minerva McGonagall, though, was not quite merciful. Not only did she wanted Kingsley Shacklebolt to live and suffer more at the hands of the Hogwarts seventh years, but to stop the students from attacking the minister, she hexed the first student her eyes landed on. Kingsley looked up from his sorry state, and smiled apologetically at the unsuspecting student. He was sure that the rather idiotic looking boy from Hufflepuff, whose name he was sure was Ernie Macmillan as he remembered him fighting with the Light side against Voldemort, was only getting ready to hex, unlike his counterparts from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Really, Kingsley thought, the Hufflepuffs were a gentle bunch. They did not need to be turned into chipmunks in front of everyone.

"I never liked the fake Professor Moody's punishment, but if you all don't stop, then I _will_ transfigure you all into a bunch of worthless creatures! Meeting dismissed." The headmistress had practically shrieked at the students. Then she turned towards the minister confidently, as if she had just not threatened the future generations of the wizarding world, and removed all hexes off him.

If the minister had thought that that was the end of his torture, Kingsley Shacklebolt was sadly mistaken. After he had left Hogwarts, and went to work, his office had been filled with owls - they carried everything, from letters, to howlers to parcels. With each new item he opened, Kingsley feared for his life more and more. The letters were very straight forward - death threats to the minster. It didn't take one to possess the brains of Hermione Granger to know that all these had been sent by the students of Hogwarts. Some letters just said that they would like to see the minister drop dead, where else others were more detailed about how some would torture the minister before offing him.

The parcels were no better. All contained weird and potentially-deadly-if-entered-through-the-wrong-hole materials, courtesy of Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes. The minister had sighed. Maybe he needed to give that shop a visit. However, none were more dangerous than the howlers. Reading about death threats from barely-legal witches and wizards was nothing compared to hearing about death threats from said witches and wizards, especially in front of his working staff. One particularly scary one sounded as if Molly Weasley was promising to turn him into a witch before hexing him into the next millennium. Even Arthur Weasley, who had been nearby at the time, had looked frozen to the ground when Kingsley had received that particular howler. However, they both later realized it had come from mini Molly - Ginny Weasley. Not that that had lessened in any way the ribbing he had gotten from his employees. If the Hogwarts seventh years ever failed at killing him, Kingsley was sure that the humiliation from being laughed at would surely do the job.

With that thought, the minister had gone to bed the previous night, after ensuring that his home was well-protected, of course. And now here he sat, at the great hall of Hogwarts, for another day of pure torture. Kingsley briefly wondered if should flee the country after this morning's announcements. He remembered the muggle footballer David Beckham had done the same after his country had lost, because of him, to Argentina during one World Cup of the muggle sport, football.

_What?_ Kingsley liked the muggle football game. It was so much better than Quidditch. Like his favorite fellow Order member Hermione Granger, Kingsley was not very good on brooms. Not that he couldn't ride the broom, but he never really understood how usually-sane witches and wizards could completely flip and enjoy enchanted-but-sometimes-maniac-balls-like-the-bludger while riding on sticks which were clearly meant to be used for sweeping the floors. At least, when playing the said muggle sport, one didn't need to fly on thin contraptions that usually gave one a wedgie.

Oh well, thought Kingsley Shacklebolt as he saw students entering the great hall, he would just need to wait now and then decide later on what would be the best course of action for his safety.

**A/N: What do you all think? I know, characters are a bit OOC in this story. Hope you don't mind. Suggestions are welcome as to how to make this story an enjoyable one :).**


	3. The Goblet of Fire!

**A/N: I see that some of you are enjoying the story. I was a bit worried because everyone in the story are a bit OOC, but you have to understand that the war, deaths of loved ones, and then the whole marriage thing have left everyone disoriented.**

**Anyways, here's the chapter where we get to see the pairings. I tried to come up with a way that would seem binding, hence why our witches and wizards can't get out of the marriages. The name of the chapter probably gives my method away. Harry had to participate in GoF even though he was underage, similarly, everyone here has to get married.**

**Note: For the sake of this story, I'm having McLaggen be in the same year as Harry, not a year above. Same for Cho Chang.  
**

**More of that later, now on with the story.  
**

**Enjoy!!!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

Kingsley Shacklebolt waited patiently as the great hall slowly began to fill with the seventh year students of Hogwarts. He noticed that the number of pupils this year was double than usual, before he remembered that last year was hardly a good school year in terms of education. So this year, students who were supposedly have completed their seventh year at Hogwarts came back again to get a proper education.

Kingsley was sure a lot of the students returned this year because they knew that Harry Potter was persuaded, by his friend Hermione Granger, to return to Hogwarts. Of course, if his observations were correct, Kingsley was sure that the reason why Harry had given in to Hermione so easily was because Ginny Weasley had to return to complete her seventh year.

Kingsley sent up silent prayer to Merlin. Or maybe he should have sent it to Albus Dumbledore? Because Kingsley was sure that Dumbledore would understand better than Merlin that why he, Minister of Magic, was praying for Harry Potter to end up having to marry Ginny Weasley. After all, Dumbledore knew about Ginny Weasley's bat bogey hex, Merlin didn't.

As he surveyed the faces in front of him, Kingsley was sure that the students were deliberately holding him up today. Kingsley knew for a fact that it had been over an hour since he had arrived at Hogwarts. He had counted the time, seconds by agonizing seconds. It was eight in the morning when he had stepped foot in the great hall, so it must be nine by now. Yet, only one third of the total seventh year were present.

Kingsley didn't like to delve too much into why these people had shown up earlier. It was natural from the look on their faces that these were students who would normally not even get a glance from the opposite sex, hence naturally they were eager to get a partner, no matter how. For example, take that Millicent Bulstrode. Kingsley felt bad for any teenager who would get stuck up with the Slytherin sumo wrestler. Of course, it might not be a bad idea if she ended up with Cormac Mclaggen. From what Hermione had told him, that Gryffindor wanna-be Quidditch captain had given Harry a lot of shame when they had lost against Hufflepuffs one time. Not to mention how that burly boy ran after Hermione, and tried to get her under the mistletoe.

As Kingsley thought about Hermione, he smiled slightly. Hermione was definitely the one among the Golden Trio that he liked the most. She was brilliant, logical, and patient. If Kingsley ever got tired of his job, and decided to retire, he would be very happy to leave the ministry in the hands of Hermione Granger. She would be more than capable of handling the job.

For a moment, Kingsley wished his ministry hadn't decided to move forward with this marriage law. Kingsley really didn't want Hermione to end up with someone she couldn't respect. However, unlike in case of Harry and Ginny, Kingsley didn't pray for Hermione and Ron to be together. He didn't know why, but from the change Ronald Weasley had undergone after the war, Kingsley was sure that that particular union would end up hurting one of the party, most likely Hermione.

As he got lost in his thoughts about the Golden Trio, they themselves materialized in the flesh in front of him. Kingsley sat up straighter, a warm smile on his face as he looked at his fellow Order members. Harry and Hermione tried to smile back at him, though both looked like they were trying not to grimace. Neville looked nervous, where else Luna seemed lost in her own world. It were the Weasley children that made the minister sigh, and wish for the day to be over already. While Ginny gave him a fierce scowl, looking uncannily like an angry Molly Weasley, Ron gave him the middle finger. This shocking attitude made Kingsley seriously think about having a one-on-one chat with Molly Weasley about her youngest son.

As all students seated themselves in the great hall, and Filch locked the doors, Professor Flitwick began to use various charms so that no one outside the hall knew what was going on. Kingsley thought it a good time to welcome the students and try and make them a bit more comfortable.

"Welcome students. I'm so glad to see you all," Kingsley lied.

"Yeah, well, you are the only one who's glad in here," muttered Mr Finnigan, while Mr Thomas hit his best friend on the head for the remark. As much as he was prepared for the type of disrespect shown by Mr Finnigan, Kingsley was at least glad to have some students like Mr Thomas. However, how long this tolerance would last was anyone's guess.

Kingsley noticed then that most students were not paying any attention to him, but was rather staring curiously at the large object in front of the teachers' table which was covered with a white cloth.

Ah, Kingsley thought, the very object that would decide their future. He looked around to see if McGonagall had finished giving the teachers a prep talk. After yesterday's incident, the headmistress didn't want to take any chances with the minister's life, so she was asking the teachers to remain prepared, should they need to intervene. Kingsley looked at the new D.A.D.A teacher, and for the first time today, gave a genuine smile. No one else would be able to keep the cursed post and entertain students, while at the same time give them valuable lessons, other than the handsome and charismatic Mr Weasley. With his long hair and an earring through one ear, Bill Weasley would be equally popular among both his male and female students.

Once Minerva McGonagall had finished instructing the teachers, she assumed her seat and motioned for the minister to continue. Kingsley Shacklebolt then rose from his seat and went to stand beside the covered object.

"Okay, let's be frank. You are not happy to be here," He said, addressing the student body.

"Oh gosh, look! The minister has finally developed some brains," sneered Pansy Parkinson, while shooting death glares at Kingsley.

"Shut it, Pans," Blaise Zabini admonished his friend where else the headmistress outright threatened the girl.

"Chipmunk, Miss Parkinson, chipmunk. That's what you will turn into if you don't keep quiet." That effectively shut the girl up, along with anyone else who might have felt emboldened by Miss Parkinson's blatant display of disrespect towards the minister.

"However, you do not have a choice," Kingsley Shacklebolt continued. "I'm really sorry about the situation you find yourselves into. I don't want to play match-maker with your lives, and as much as I like the idea of free food, the manner that I had received them yesterday was not particularly appealing." Kingsley gave a short laugh at that, but seeing as no one was laughing at his attempt at a feeble joke, he sighed and decided to get directly to the point.

"Well, this object here," Kingsley said pointing to the large object beside him, "will decide your fate."

"What is it?" It was a question several students voiced, and Kingsley was sure everyone in the room were interested to know as well. With a dramatic flare, Kingsley removed the white cloth.

Shocked gasps and harsh intake of breath were heard, but only one recovered enough to ask the question. She never really was interested in anything other than books.

"The Goblet of Fire?" Hermione Granger seemed more confused than anything else.

"Yes. All of your names are in there. Once the initiation is performed, the goblet will burn a fiery red and throw out a name of a female student. That student will come stand here then, and only she will be able to retrieve the name of her partner from the changed blue flame." As expected, most students looked bemused by now.

"If you all remember your fourth year Triwizard Tournament, then you know that the Goblet of Fire forms a binding contract. There is no getting out of the marriage once the goblet selects your partner for you. And now, I'll perform the initiation ceremony."

With that, the minister stood back and chanted a revealing spell. Soon, a red flame burst into the goblet and burned brightly. Minerva McGonagall came to stand beside the minister as the goblet prepared to shoot out the first name. With what looked like a mini firework, the goblet threw out the first name. Kingsley caught the paper in his hand, and read out the first name.

"Lavender Brown," Kingsley said loudly.

Lavender stood from her seat nervously, and slowly made her way towards the goblet. As she stood beside it, the flame turned blue and another piece of paper shot out of it. Lavender caught it with trembling hands, and placed it in the headmistress's outstretched hand.

"Blaise Zabini."

"What?" Lavender shrieked when she heard who her husband was going to be. "But I love Parvati!"

It was Parvati's turn to shriek out loud.

"I mean...I mean...I would choose Parvati over some Slytherin..." Lavender mumbled, looking down.

"That would be enough theatrics, Miss Brown. Mr Zabini, join your fiancee," McGonagall barked at the said Slytherin.

"Dude, your wife fancies another girl," Nott smirked.

"Yeah, hot isn't it?" Zabini grinned and winked at his fellow Slytherins before making his way towards his future bride.

As the couple moved away from the goblet, the fire turned red again before shooting out another paper.

"Cho Chang."

All Ravenclaws waited with bated breath as their seeker made her way to the goblet. She took the paper that shot of the blue flame and handed it to the headmistress.

"Cormac McLaggen."

Harry elbowed Hermione at that and whispered with a smirk, "My ex with yours."

Hermione rolled her eyes, while Ginny punched Harry in the arm. "I'm sitting right here, so think twice before mentioning your exes," Ginny said with a scowl. Neville tried to stifle his laughter and Harry muttered a quick 'sorry' to his angry girlfriend.

"Parvati Patil."

Harry and his friends looked up to see Parvati starting for the goblet. The same procedure was carried out, and before long, the headmistress said in a loud voice.

"Dean Thomas."

Both Parvati and Dean looked quite happy with the decision of the goblet as they stood beside each other and gave one another shy smiles.

"Millicent Bulstrode," Kingsley tried his best to suppress the wince as he uttered the name. The huge girl stomped her way to the goblet. She caught the paper from it, and quickly handed it to McGonagall.

"Gregory Goyle."

Goyle gave out a Lavender-like shriek and refused to get up from his seat. When the headmistress urged him to join his bride, he looked at Zabini and was struck by an idea. He solemnly stated that he couldn't marry Bulstrode because he was in love with his late friend, Vincent Crabbe. McGonagall gave him a stern look, and he slowly dragged his feet towards Millicent, who was waiting for him with a large smile on her face.

"This is turning out to be quite interesting," Seamus Finnigan whispered to his friends with a grin.

"Hannah Abbott."

The Hufflepuff nervously walked towards the goblet. When the headmistress announced her partner to be Theodore Nott, she practically started crying. One look at her fiance, and it appeared that he wasn't faring better either.

"Susan Bones."

"Such a delicate Hufflepuff," Seamus sniggered at his fellow Gryffindors, as he saw Susan trip her way over to the goblet. "I feel bad for the bloke who will end up with that klutz."

"Seamus Finnigan."

"What?" Seamus shouted outraged, while all his friends grinned at him.

"Feeling bad about yourself, are you?" Ginny asked with a fake smile.

"Well Susan's not too thrilled either," Hermione muttered, and surely enough, Susan was standing beside the other couples with grimace on her face.

"Luna Lovegood," the minster then called out. Luna looked up from her pudding, and stared at Kingsley with a confused look.

"Err...you need to go up there, Luna," Harry said.

"But I was enjoying my pudding," Luna said with a bemused smile.

"Don't worry, you can gave it later on," Ginny replied quickly.

"Miss Lovegood! What's taking you so long?" Minerva McGonagall bellowed.

"Go, Luna," Neville urged.

"Okay. Save my pudding for me, alright?" Neville nodded his head vigorously before turning towards Harry and mouthing 'must be the Nargles' to him.

Harry grinned and turned just in time to see the headmistress shout out, "Neville Longbottom."

Harry, Ginny and Hermione turned quickly to see Neville's reaction. Neville looked surprised at first, but then he quickly got up and smiled at his friends.

"Might as well take her pudding with me," he said with a grin before walking off towards Luna.

"Well, that one will have a happy-ending," Hermione said, smiling.

"Ginny Weasley."

"If I don't get you Harry, I'm willing to die, and you better be prepared to do the same. Or else, I'll personally bring down the dementors on you," Ginny muttered to her boyfriend, before angrily making her way to the goblet.

"Tough choices, huh, Harry?" Hermione said with a wicked smile.

"Oh shut up, Mione," Harry huffed.

"Harry Potter."

Harry grinned from ear to ear before ruffling Hermione's hair, and then practically running over to where Ginny was. The two shared a long kiss, until the minster coughed lightly beside them.

"Oh Kingsley! I'm so sorry for sending those death threats and the howler at you. I promise I'll send sweets next time," Ginny laughingly told the minister.

"You sent him death threats and a howler?" Harry asked, shocked.

"Five points from Gryffindor, Miss Weasley," McGonagall said when she heard Ginny. "And you will serve detention with our D.A.D.A teacher." There was twinkle in the headmistress's eyes as she pronounced the detention. Ginny, however, was too happy to care.

"Pansy Parkinson."

As Hermione heard the Slytherin girl being called, she didn't pay too much attention. She was beginning to feel quite relaxed now. Except for a few, the pairings were quite good. Hermione was sure she was going to end up with Ron. After all, Ginny got Harry. And even though they were not yet in love, but Hermione was sure Neville and Luna would soon love each other too. Seeing them made Hermione confident that she would be with Ron. After all, who else could be better suited to Ron?

"Ronald Weasley."

"WHAT?" Pansy and Ron shouted at the same time. While they both started flinging insults at each other, Hermione could almost feel her world crashing down on her. All she could think about was that Pansy got Ron. Hermione started to feel light-headed and it seemed like Mcgonagall's voice, snarling for Ron and Pansy to stand by each other, was coming from a far-off distance.

"Hermione Granger."

Kingsley felt sad as he saw a dazed and broken looking Hermione make her way slowly over to the goblet. He looked sideways to see Minerva looking concerned too. Hermione took the paper that the blue fire shot out with shaky hands, and handed it the headmistress. Kingsley saw McGonagall's eyes widen before she schooled her features and looked at Hermione. The girl had her head down and eyes closed. Minerva turned towards the students and said the name in a clear voice.

"Draco Malfoy."

The loud gasps that broke out over the great hall gave a small indication about what everyone thought about the match. Kingsley looked at the reformed Death Eater to find him frozen in his seat. He wasn't sure what the boy would do once the shock wore off, and he started to prepare himself to hex should the Malfoy boy start to insult Hermione. However, before he could wait and see Draco Malfoy's reaction, he saw a figure lurch from his peripheral vision. Kingsley swiftly turned and held a swaying Hermione...before she threw up at the minister's feet.

**A/N: Let me know what you all think, please :)**


	4. Detention and Intention!

**A/N: I'm loving reading your reviews :). They make me happy. **

**Now I see that most of you are waiting for Draco's reaction. Well, you will get it in this chapter, but not the complete one. I like a bit of mystery ;). **

**Also, my Draco will be more like how he became after his sixth and seventh years in the book - broodingly quiet, and slowly walking towards the right side of the law. So, if you want to see the nasty, insulting, and whiny ferret boy, you will be disappointed. That's Ron's job at the moment. But trust me, I've my reasons for making Ron a bit cruel. Don't worry though, he'll come around.**

**One of you asked if Kingsley was in love with Hermione as he worries so much about her. The answer is no. He just knows that due to Ron, Hermione is going through a difficult time and he simply feels bad for her.**

**Another one of you asked if the marriage law was something mentioned in the books. As far as I remember, the answer is no. I just read a couple of them here at FFN. Except for a few, ones which I really liked, most of these fan fics were serious ones, so I wanted to have a bit of fun. The war was depressing enough as it was, so I believe our favorite witches and wizards need to have fun. Hopefully, at the same time, they will learn more about themselves, get matured, and learn to leave all prejudices behind them.  
**

**Enjoy!!!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

"Could you two like stop snogging for one second?" Bill Weasley muttered impatiently at his only sister and the boy-who-lived. Immediately the couple broke apart, and where Harry went red with embarrassment, Ginny turned a similar shade due to anger.

"Don't tell me what I can do or not," Ginny said, hands resting on her hips. She resembled so much like their mother, that Bill was scared for a moment. Then he realized how absurd he was being. He was her eldest brother, for Merlin's sake, and she was supposedly here in his office chamber to serve detention.

"Just why exactly are you here, Potter?" Bill asked exasperatedly. "Can't you two stay away from each other for a few hours? You two are going to be married anyways."

"Thank God for that," sighed Ginny dreamily and wrapped her arms around Harry, before proceeding to kiss all senses out of him.

"Oh for the sake of all that is holy, stop!" Shouted Bill, as he stood angrily over his desk and glaring at the two teenagers, fists clenched at his sides. "Put some distance between yourselves."

"We do that already when we go to bed," Ginny said nonchalantly as she began peppering kisses on Harry's throat, who was praying to Godric that he should at least be allowed to live long enough to get married for defeating the dark lord, and not get murdered now in the hands of his girlfriend's eldest brother.

"Gah!" Bill muttered, closing his eyes and putting his hands on the sides of his head as if doing that would lessen his headache. "I don't need to know about your sleeping arrangements."

Ginny sighed, and detached herself from Harry.

"What is your problem, Bill? Surely McGonagall wouldn't really want me to serve detention. I mean, that's the reason she placed me with you. She knew you don't have the courage to give me punishment," Ginny finished with a smirk. Bill opened his eyes slowly and flopped down on his seat again, before smiling slightly at his sister's cheekiness. Harry breathed a sigh of relief, sure now that he wasn't about to be offed by a deranged elder brother.

"No, the headmistress didn't really want me to give you punishment. The reason she placed you with me was because she thought that you would rather get the_ talk_ from me than mum about why it's not such a good idea to send death threats and howlers to the minister."

"Mum doesn't know, does she?" Ginny asked nervously. Harry rubbed soothing circles on Ginny's back, although he wasn't surprised that his girlfriend was scared. Molly Weasley could be really scary if she wanted to be.

"No, but dad does," Bill said. "He was there when Kingsley got the howler, and he's not at all happy with your behavior. The only reason he hasn't told mum yet is because the minister asked him not to."

Ginny flopped to the ground and sat cross-legged, before burying her face in her hands.

"I'm so very sorry. I should never have sent those to Kingsley," Ginny murmured from behind her hands. Harry sat on the floor too.

"It's okay, Gin," Harry said before prying his girlfriend's fingers from her face. "Kingsley has surely forgiven you. He's our friend, after all."

"No, it's not okay, Harry," Bill said somewhat loudly, and came to stand by the couple. He crossed his arms on his chest and continued, "You all can't insult people and expect them to forgive you, simply because they are your friends. I am ashamed of you, Gin, and I am most definitely ashamed of that git of a brother of mine, Ronald Weasley."

At the mention of Ron's name, Ginny stood up angrily, and even Harry tensed up as he slowly rose to his feet.

"I can't believe that he said such awful things to Hermione," Ginny said ferociously. "I'll kill him with my own bare hands when I see him next."

"Where is he, anyway?" Bill asked. "He too was supposed to serve detention with me."

"I suppose McGonagall wanted you to give him the _talk_ too," Ginny murmured sarcastically.

"Yeah," Bill said. "Though I don't know how much good will that do. What happened to Ron? He seems so changed after Fred's death. I mean, I was sure he liked Hermione before, maybe even loved her. What went wrong?" Bill asked, looking at Harry.

Harry shook his head, his mind still unable to grasp what had happened earlier that morning.

After Hermione had hurled at the minister's feet, Harry had been staring intently at Malfoy. He was waiting to see what the so-called Slytherin Prince would do once his shock wore off. His best friend was distressed enough as it was, Harry didn't want Malfoy to insult her and add salt to her injury. Harry was ready to hex Malfoy to oblivion, should the latter try to harm Hermione emotionally.

However, Malfoy's final words were nowhere as hurtful as Ron's had been.

Once Draco Malfoy had realized he was not having a terrible nightmare, he simply narrowed his eyes at the minister and had muttered through clenched teeth.

"_Is this a JOKE?_"

Without waiting for an answer, Malfoy simply turned and walked out of the great hall. Harry was ready to follow the Slytherin, before he realized that the minister himself had darted after Malfoy, once he had done a quick _scourgify _to his robes and shoes.

Harry would have still followed as he saw Ginny run to Hermione and held her heaving form, but Ron's words had stopped him dead in his tracks.

_"What, Hermione? Already prepared to give birth to little Malfoys?" Ron had sneered. "From the looks of it though, he doesn't seem interested."_

While all the occupants of the great hall had gone quiet, Hermione gasped loudly as she disbelievingly turned towards Ron. As she stared up at his cruel expression, tears ran down her cheeks. Getting up slowly, Hermione clutched her robes tightly across the chest, and ran out of the great hall.

The moment Hermione left, Ginny attacked Ron with her bat bogey hex and the whole hall was filled with his screams. Soon someone, probably Pansy, shouted out some obscenities at Ginny, who retaliated, and the great hall was filled with commotion. Harry didn't stick around to find out what was happening. Ginny was a strong girl and she could handle herself, he knew that. Also, with the headmistress and all the other teachers present, Harry was sure no danger would befall any of the students.

No, Harry was not needed in the great hall. Instead he went to comfort the person who was not only his best friend, but was someone Harry regarded as his own sister - Harry left the great hall to look for Hermione.

It was later, after his talk with Hermione, that he learned from Ginny that McGonagall had served detention to quite a few students, and Ron was one of them. However, neither Harry or Ginny had seen him after wards.

* * *

While Harry, Ginny and Bill were pondering about Ron in Bill's office, in the Room of Requirement a tender Luna was running her fingers slowly through the soft curls of her friend who lay on the large window sill, her head on Luna's lap. Luna herself was also on the said sill, sitting down with her back on one the walls.

Neville entered the room then, and both girls turned to see him carrying a tray of food.

"Here, I've brought food. Now get up and eat," Neville said to the two girls.

"Thank you so much, but I'm not very hungry, Neville," Hermione said in a small voice.

"La la la...I'm not hearing anything. Eat now."

"Neville, please?"

"Fine. I have brought food for all three of us. But if you won't eat, then we won't eat either. Isn't that right, Luna?" Neville asked his fiancee.

"Yes, Neville, we won't eat, even though I'm really hungry, and my stomach is practically growling at the sight of that pudding." Surely enough, Luna's stomach gave a loud growl, as if there was a bear in the Room of Requirement with them. Hermione looked shocked, where else Neville looked bemused.

"How did you do that?" Hermione asked Luna with incredulity in her voice.

"Do what?" Luna asked innocently.

"You had a slice of chocolate cheesecake, and a bowl of seasonal fruits not even an hour ago. I _saw_ you. I wasn't asleep, I was only pretending," Hermione admitted somewhat shamefully.

"What? Shame on you Hermione!" Luna admonished, laughingly.

Hermione huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. Luna was glad to see this side of Hermione. This was the witch she knew to be her friend, not the broken, moping girl who had hid in the RoR and cried her heart out since morning after her talk with Harry.

"Now, can we eat?" Luna asked, raising her eyebrows. "I'm really really hungry." As if to prove her point, her stomach gave another grow. Hermione stuck her tongue out at her friend and said she was going to the washroom to clean up first.

"Wow. So, you are really hungry, huh?" Neville asked Luna, as Hermione entered the bathroom that had just materialized.

"Of course not, silly," Luna giggled dreamily.

"What was it then? The Nargles?" Neville asked with a genuine smile.

"No," Luna replied happily, as she picked up her pudding. "It were those Crumple-Horned Snorkacks."

* * *

Down in the dungeons of the Hogwarts Castle, the Slytherin common room was burtsing with activities. All the students were sharing their opinions and views on everything - from their undesirable partners, to Hermione Granger's humiliation at the hands of her so-called-best friend-and-now-most-likely-ex-boyfriend Ronald Weasley, to Ginny Weasley's masterful bat bogey hex and the whole marriage law in general.

Only one person was missing from these colorful conversations. It didn't go unnoticed by the other students or his friends, but even after the fall of the dark lord, the Malfoys were still powerful. How else would Draco Malfoy and his parents, all self-proclaimed Death Eaters, be pardoned from serving time in Azkaban? Hence, where the other student were just too scared to inquire after Draco Malfoy's whereabouts, his friends simply pretended that the Slytherin Prince was tired after an agitating day, and went to bed early.

Draco Malfoy was in his dorm alright, but not in his bed. He stood in the dark beside his bed, and thought about what the minister had told him earlier today. As much as he hated to admit it, Draco knew that the minister was right. There was nothing that could be done about the goblet's decision, but as the minister had pointed out, Draco was by far the luckiest among his peers. It was as if the goblet had given him a new life, a new beginning.

True Draco didn't like it, and he cursed Lucius to the pits of Hell for putting them in the position they were in now, but what had happened with the goblet was the best chance Draco had. As the minister had said, Draco didn't even deserve it. Kingsley Shacklebolt had also warned Draco of the consequences should he decide to rebel or cause any harm or damage.

Draco laughed mirthlessly. As if he would dare. No, the minister didn't need to worry. Even without the warning, Draco would not have messed up this opportunity. He was not stupid. He would have done it right. He _would_ do it right.

For his mother.

**A/N: I know Draco seems to have a dark motive, but really, if you all think carefully, you will be able to figure him out. Remember what JKR said? Except for Voldemort, redemption is possible for everyone. Lucius was too hard-headed to change, but we all knew Narcissa had already withdrew her support of the dark lord. A mother's love is a wonderful thing, isn't it? It saved Harry in the books, maybe it will save Draco here? And make him worthy of Hermione? Let me know what you all think, please :)**


	5. Breakfast in the great hall!

**A/N: Thank you for the lovely reviews :). I read and enjoy each and everyone of them. It's what makes me eager to write ;). Now, this chapter will contain some of the first conversations of our not-happy-with-the-goblet's-choice-of-my-partner couples. Let's see how that turns out :-D.  
**

**Enjoy!!!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

It was seven-thirty in the morning. Breakfast didn't start for another half an hour. However, Draco had been up till six, and didn't feel like lazing around in his dorm anymore. Seeing that he had already completed his morning chores, Draco got dressed for his classes, and with his bag on one shoulder, he made his way to the Slytherin common room.

Draco was surprised to find Zabini, Goyle and Pansy already lounging on a set of sofas. As the curtains were drawn on their beds when he had left the room, Draco had thought Zabini and Goyle to be still sleeping. However, it didn't look like that they had woken a long time ago, probably sometime when Draco was in the washroom, for all three of his friends were still in their pajamas.

As they saw Draco approaching, his friends smiled at him and motioned for him to join them. Draco looked at his watch, and saw that their was still twenty-three minutes to go before breakfast would be served. Resignedly, Draco made his way over to his friends. He was sure he knew what they would do once he joined them. They would want to speak about what had happened yesterday, especially about what the minister had told him.

Well, Draco was determined to keep his mouth sealed. They could ask all they wanted, but Draco would not speak a word. As soon as he settled on one of the single sofas, he glared at them all, daring them to defy him and upset his already-sour mood.

However, his friends took no notice of him. Goyle kept alternating between shooting nervous glances behind his back, towards the girls dormitory, and looking intently at the Slytherin common room' s tapestry, as if there was some deep mystery in there.

Pansy rolled her eyes at Goyle, where else Zabini slowly shook his head, as if to say he couldn't believe how anyone could be as thick as Goyle. Noticing that the attention was not on him, Draco eyed Goyle curiously. Not being able to figure out his strange behavior, Draco lifted one perfect eyebrow at his other two friends.

"While you were in the washroom, an owl had arrived and delivered a letter addressed to Goyle here. It was from his fiance, Millicent." Zabini cracked at that, as he continued with his tale. "Apparently, she wanted to wake-up Goyle herself with breakfast, so she asked him to stay in bed, and not to bother getting up." Zabini looked at Goyle with an amused smile then. "Naturally, Goyle panicked and started shouting to wake us all up."

Draco frowned. "I didn't hear any noise from the washroom."

"Well, he sounded more like a gibbering idiot as he disturbed our sleep, so I don't blame you. Anyways, we noticed that you were not in your bed, and Nott just went back to sleep after throwing some colorful curses at Goyle, so it was me and Goyle who had to come up with a plan."

"Plan?" Draco asked with a smile, enjoying the morning better than he thought he would.

"Well, I don't really care what Bulstrode does with Goyle, but I really don't want her in our dorm room. I thought you would agree."

"Oh, most definitely," Draco laughed out.

"Well, since we didn't want to handle her ourselves, so this time we sent an owl - to Pansy. She would definitely be able to handle that huge cupboard they call a witch, and what do you know? She succeeded," Zabini ended with a grin.

Draco turned towards Pansy.

"What did you do?"

"Oh, nothing really," the dark haired witch said with a yawn. "Seeing that it was too early to get up, I silently put a sleeping spell on Bulstrode." Pansy then scowled at Goyle. "He doesn't believe it though. He thinks Millicent would burst through her dormitory any minute, and terrorize everyone one," huffed Pansy. "As if I can't put a powerful sleeping spell."

"I didn't say your sleeping spell's not powerful," Goyle defended himself. "I just think Millicent is strong enough to overcome anything. Why, just last night, she grabbed me and kissed me on the lips. She said it was a good-night kiss. Her hold was so strong I couldn't even move my head. It was as if she had petrified me to the spot," Goyle muttered.

"Ugh!" Pansy shuddered . "Don't talk about such things. It's gross." However, the witch's face transformed from one of horror to amusement just then, and she started to laugh.

"What's so funny?" All three boys asked at the same time.

"I used to think how yucky it would be for a witch when Goyle kissed her, but now that I know that he's paired with Millicent, I feel sorry for him."

"Yeah well, Pans," Zabini said lazily, "we used to feel a bit grossed out too whenever we thought that if we took you out, we would have to kiss you."

Draco smirked at that, and looked at Pansy for reaction. However, she was staring at him with a smile on her own face.

"You feeling alright, Draco?"

Suddenly he realized that Zabini's comment was made not to insult Pansy, for Pansy knew very well that both Zabini and Draco had enjoyed dating her, but to cheer Draco up. Immediately, he stiffened and schooled his features. He realized his friends thought that he was still upset about being forced to marry Granger. They were not wrong, but he also had a lot to gain from this union, so he was okay with it now. Of course, that didn't mean he would tell them his secret. Sometimes, it was better to not trust anyone.

Just then an announcement was heard, made by the headmistress herself. Draco and his friends stared at the speaker box in their dormitory as McGonagall asked all students to sit beside their intended while having meals and in classes. There would be no different tables for different houses, either in the great hall or in classes. Whichever partner reached first would choose a place, and his/her intended would have to occupy the nearby seat.

"Oh, no!" Goyle let out a very girly wail. "There are no tapestries in classes, which means I won't be able to hide from Millicent there."

"You wouldn't have been able to hide the humongous size of yours behind this room's tapestry either," Pansy muttered, as she got up and made her way to her dorm.

Draco smiled, as he saw Zabini and Goyle make their way to the boys dorm. So that was why Goyle had been staring at the tapestry, he thought.

* * *

It was almost half past eight when the four Slytherins made their way to the great hall. Zabini and Pansy kept blaming each other for their late entrance at breakfast. As they had predicted, the Gryffindors were already on what used to be their table, meaning that with the exception of Goyle, the other three would have to sit in their enemies-turned-betrothed's table.

Draco didn't mind - either being late or having to sit beside Granger. The latter would ensure that he could be civil, and the former meant that he would have to spend less time with her. As much as he _understood_ how it was advantageous for him to be betrothed to the Gryffindor princess, it didn't mean he wanted to be in her company.

As the three friends made their way towards the Gryffindor heroes, they realized that one third of the Golden Trio was sitting far away from the other two and his friends.

"What is this? The best-of-friends-till-first-year, fellow-members-of-the-Order, war heroes, the _Golden Trio_, have broken up?" Pansy said sardonically, as they reached the Gryffindors.

"What the fuck do you want, Parkinson?" Ginny said with a scowl.

"You're being rude," Draco said calmly, looking at Ginny.

"Back off, Malfoy," Harry threatened from beside his betrothed.

"I'm merely pointing out that your girlfriend has a foul mouth."

"Well, your friend started it," Harry said angrily.

Just then they all heard a shriek from beside them. They were so busy arguing, they hadn't heard what was going on. Every eye in the great hall turned to see Lavender getting up from her seat and glaring at Zabini.

"What? All I asked was who do you find sexy today? Me or Parvati?" Zabini said, staring innocently at his fiancee. The occupants in the great hall stared in amazement as they saw Lavender turn to her side, pull Parvati up from her seat, and kiss her quickly on the lips. A shocked Parvati stared back at Lavender, as did Dean from beside her.

Lavender didn't care, though. She turned back to Zabini and said venomously, "Does that answer your question?" With that, she picked up her things and left the great hall.

Seamus whistled, while earning a slap on the back of his head from Susan, and Zabini simply stared at the retreating figure of his betrothed.

Pansy reached out a hand and gave her friend a shake. "You okay, Blaise?" She asked in a concerned manner.

"That was the hottest thing I have ever seen," Zabini murmured dreamily, as he took after his future bride.

Pansy rolled her eyes, and turned around to see Ron walking towards the door of the great hall.

"Oh look," she said sarcastically, "here comes by _fiance_, the Weasel King!" By now, Ron had reached where she was standing with Draco.

"Well, hello to you too, _Weasel Queen_!" Ron said in an equally sarcastic manner, before walking past her and towards the great hall doors.

"Don't you dare call me that!" Pansy shrieked as she saw Ron walking away. "Did you hear me? Come back here, you git!" Pansy screeched as she ran after Ron and out the great hall.

"Well, what are you still waiting here for?" Hermione looked straight at _The Daily Prophet_ as she addressed Draco, who was standing behind her, staring after his friends. "Your friends are gone, so go after them. You are not welcome here."

"Why are you being unnecessarily rude to me?" Draco asked, turning to look at his fiancee's back, his voice deceptively quiet.

Hermione turned around suddenly, her anger evident in her features.

"I'm being rude? You are the one going around, throwing that accusation at everyone. I asked _nicely_," she said, glaring at the boy before her.

"I was not accusing anyone of anything. I was merely stating a fact about Weasley here," Draco replied, pointing at Ginny with his head.

"How dare you insult my friends?" Hermione shouted, getting up from her seat.

"Lower your voice, Granger."

"Or else what?" Hermione practically screamed at his face, her body shaking with anger.

"Miss Granger!" said the headmistress, as she made her way towards her favorite student, "What seems to be the problem here?" McGonagall looked from Hermione to Draco, and back again.

"He is the problem, professor, _as always_!" Hermione said angrily, pointing her index finger at her fiance. Draco narrowed his eyes at her.

"Mr Malfoy, please see me in my office now." With that, the headmistress left the great hall. Draco clenched his jaw and with a last look, full of loathing and hatred, at his betrothed, he turned and followed after McGonagall.

**A/N:**** Did you guys like it? Surely you didn't expect them to fall in love right away? Draco needs to fall in love Hermione with the right reasons - she's a girl worth loving, mudblood or not. And Hermione needs to learn that she can't always hold Draco responsible for everything bad, just based on his past mistakes. Don't worry though, there will be no angst. However, there will be a lot of hatred involved. After all, you know what they say? There's a fine line between love and hate ;). Let me know what you all think, please :)**


	6. Slytherins and Gryffindors!

**A/N: The reviews are amazing :). I'm glad to read that you all are enjoying reading this story. Hope you all have fun with this chapter too.  
**

**Enjoy!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

"Take a seat, Mr Malfoy," the headmistress said as the two entered the office that once used to be occupied by Albus Dumbledore. Just then Draco noticed, as he occupied one of the seats indicated, the fireplace turn green, and in walked the minister of magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt...followed closely by Narcissa Malfoy.

Draco's blood boiled at the sight of his distraught mother. He loved his mother more than anyone else in this world, and she was the reason he had obediently endured and followed all that that had been thrown in his path in his short life.

After the war and the defeat of the dark lord, Narcissa Malfoy had finally been able to be truly happy with her life. Throughout his life, Draco had thought his parents were the kind of people who did not allow emotions to rule their lives. He never had a problem with it as he was raised to be the same. It was only after the death of the dark lord that Draco realized how much the presence of Voldemort had affected his parents' natures. While Lucius had looked drained and had simply given up, as he had no powerful dark wizard to save his arse, Narcissa had glowed with joy.

Draco had loved the change in his mother, and he had vowed he would do everything in his power to keep the smile on her lips. The only thing that worried his mother these days was Draco himself. His mother loved him so much that even something as simple as a paper-cut, which happened often as he dealt with rough-textured parchments on a daily basis, got his mother all flustered about him. Hence, Draco was really angry now that his mother had been brought in just because his _dear fiancee_ had picked a fight with him. He was sure his mother thought something awful had happened to him, and Draco didn't like to worry his mother unnecessarily.

"It has not even been a day, and you are already causing trouble, Mr Malfoy," drawled the minister, as he took a seat. "After the talk I had with you yesterday, I was hoping you would have changed and think twice before doing anything silly. Mrs Malfoy here saved Harry's life," Kingsley said gesturing to Narcissa Malfoy, who was also sitting down and trying to catch Draco'e eyes, but Draco kept his eyes resolutely averted. "And in gratitude, I was hoping to restore the reputation that the Malfoy name once held. In fact, I was planning to hold this award ceremony in honor of all war heroes, and wanted to award Narcissa, too. In that way, people will see that the Malfoys have changed, and the name would not only be held in esteem once again, but will also be trusted, and not feared as before." Draco didn't say a word as the minister continued, and was yet to look anyone in the eye. He sat as still as a statue, and the only indication that he was hearing was the tightening of his hand on his wand.

"Merlin must have been really happy with you, for he threw another opportunity to redeem your family," said Kingsley. "The match between Miss Granger and yourself would without doubt make the wizarding world view the Malfoys in a different light. Hermione Granger is the brightest witch of her age, and her part in the war has made her a well-loved, respected citizen. When she marries you, people would obviously extend that respect to you too, not to mention how much you yourself will earn when witches and wizards around the world will notice that you left your prejudices behind, and married a muggle-born."

Draco still remained quiet, though his wand was almost at the end of its resistance, and almost near to breaking point.

"Draco?" His mother asked softly, her voice full with worry.

"Are you listening to me, Mr Malfoy?" Kingsley Shacklebolt asked sternly.

"FINE!" Draco shouted, his anger having reached its zenith. "Fine, I'll not say a word," he said, looking angrily at the occupants of the room. All three looked shocked at his outburst. "Because that was all I was doing," he spat. "Pansy was looking for Weasley, and when she didn't see him with his friends and sister, she commented on their relation's disintegration. The Weasley girl reacted rudely, cursing and all, and I merely pointed that out. But, of course, I forgot I was talking to the Golden Trio and their heroic friends," Draco said sarcastically. "They can never do anything wrong. If Gryffindors and Slytherins were fighting, then it _obviously_ must be the Slytherins' faults."

"Draco!" His mother admonished, looking as if she was ashamed of him. Draco really hated it when his mother looked at him that way, especially when he hadn't done anything wrong. "Don't talk to the minister and the headmistress that way."

"Why not?" Draco said bitterly "Was the headmistress around when Granger started shouting at me? Does she really know who started the fight? She just took Granger's word for it, and _I_ am the one being lectured and warned." He then looked at the other two present in the room and said calmly, "You know what? Fine, I admit. Because I was a Death Eater, I'll always be wrong. No problem, I'll not aggravate the Gryffindor princess anymore, and since she seems to get mad even when I talk, I'll not say anything to her. We are just required to marry, right? And have children? Nobody said we had to communicate. Okay, then. I'll not say one bloody word to her." With that Draco turned, and left the room.

Narcissa, who had gotten up when scolding Draco, fell back in her chair, and sighed sadly.

"You okay, Narcissa?" The minster asked kindly.

"He's right, you know," McGonagall said slowly, as she looked at the others. "I didn't really verify who started all the commotion. I guess he has a right to be angry, as truth be told, I did think him to be the guilty one, considering his former reputation. In fact, I blew it out of proportion and called you both for this urgent meeting. After all, it could very well be that Miss Granger was the one who started the outburst."

"But from what I have gathered, she's a sensible girl," Narcissa said to Minerva. "Don't let Draco's word get to you, and I...I'm really sorry for his behavior."

"No, Narcissa, Mr Malfoy is likely right. True, Hermione Granger usually doesn't let her temper flare like that, but the marriage law has been hard on the students, and almost everyone is behaving in a peculiar manner."

"I'll be so glad when the year is over," Kingsley said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

* * *

Hermione, along with Harry and Ginny, made her way to the Gryffindor common room, after having finished all the classes for the day. They were all tired, dirty from the day's chores, and in really bad moods. Once they said the password, and entered their common room, they could see Lavender raving and ranting at Parvati. Dean and Seamus looked amused, where else Neville looked trapped. Ron was nowhere to be seen.

Neville was the first one to notice the arrival of the three Gryffindors, and he looked positively relieved at the sight of them.

"Hey Harry, Ginny, Hermione!" Neville greeted loudly, and scampered away from where Lavender was with Parvati.

"Hi Neville," Ginny and Hermione said in unison.

"What's going on?" Harry asked, looking at Lavender. Lavender, by now having seen the newcomers, heard what Harry had asked, and took it upon herself to answer the question.

"What's going on? What's going on, you ask?" She retorted venomously. "I'll tell you what's going on. That bloody Zabini_ kissed_ me. Can you imagine the nerve of the git? He actually came up to me and kissed me. And you know what he said after that? He said I should go to bed and spend the night thinking carefully about the kiss. He said he was sure that once I had time to process, I will realize that I enjoyed his kiss more than kissing Parvati."

By now, Lavender's face was sporting a horrible shade of pink from all the tirade. Harry tried to suppress his laughter, and he saw that Hermione, Dean and Seamus were also trying to do the same. Neville seemed a little scared, where else Ginny had a contemplative look on her face. Parvati was trying to calm down her best-friend.

"Forget about him, Lav. He's not worth thinking about," Parvati said soothingly.

"Look," Ginny said suddenly, "we know that today had been stressful, so why don't we do something enjoyable?" That got everyone's attention.

"Like what?" asked Lavender.

"What do people do when they are trying to have a good time?" Ginny asked everyone.

"Read story books," replied Hermione.

"Play Quidditch," said Harry.

"Gardening," added Neville.

"Watch movies," answered Dean, who was muggle-born, so knew all about cinema.

"Have sex." Everyone looked at Seamus and scowled at him.

Ginny turned towards Parvati and Lavender, and raised her eye-brows.

"Well," said Parvati, "I always found dancing to be really fun. You know, put on some good music, and then let your body move with flow."

"Me too," squealed Lavender as she wrapped her arms around her best friend and gave her a hug. "I simply love to dance." With that, her tantrum over her fiance, Zabini, momentarily forgotten, Lavender began to flail her her arms and legs about. Seamus quickly moved away from Lavender so as not to get hurt, as did Dean, taking his fiancee along with him. Harry, Hermione, and Neville stared wide eyed, and only Ginny had the courage to ask what everyone else was dying to know.

"Um, Lavender? What are you doing?"

Lavender, while continuing with the weird movements of her hands and legs, smiled at Ginny and replied in such a manner as if she was talking to a five-year-old.

"I'm dancing, Ginny."

"And here I was so sure she was karate chopping the air," Hermione murmured from beside Ginny. Harry chuckled lightly, while Neville looked confused.

"She was karate what?" He asked Hermione. Ginny didn't give Hermione a chance to reply though.

"Lavender!" Ginny exclaimed, looking mortified. "Don't ever do that again. That's not dancing! Merlin, but it was worse than the thought of Neville attempting ballet dancing."

"Or Hermione trying to play Quidditch," Harry added.

Immediately, he was hit on the head with a large book. One shouldn't mess around with Hermione, especially when she had such weapons of mass destruction at her disposal. The common room was suddenly filled laughter, as the Gryffindors tried to forget about their ordeals for the moment, and just be the eighteen-year-olds that they were.

**A/N:**** Let me know what you all think, please :)**


	7. Temper tantrums and anger management!

**A/N: ****Enjoy!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

The Gryffindors were in a light and jolly mood as they made their way to breakfast the next morning. The previous night's some-what comic activities had considerably helped them to feel less burdened by the whole marriage law thing. Harry and Ginny were holding hands and stealing a few kisses now and then when they thought no one was looking, Seamus and Dean were joking with each other, Parvati and Lavender were talking about the latest fashion in dress robes, and Neville was taking advice from Hermione about a herbology assignment. The only Gryffindor missing from their circle of friends was Ron. Although they all missed and worried about him, at the moment none were willing to dampen their moods by thinking about the wayward third of the Golden Trio.

As they entered the great hall, Hermione and Lavender were grateful to notice that their respective partners had not yet arrived for breakfast. Seamus, however, noticed that Susan was already present, so with an exaggerated sigh, he left his fellow Gryffindors behind to go and sit at the Hufflepuff table.

"This is like a demotion or something, having to sit at the Hufflepuff table after eating my meals at the Gyffindor table all my life," he had said to Dean, before walking off to join his fiancee.

Hermione rolled her eyes at that.

"Seamus forgot that Cedric Diggory was from Hufflepuff, and he was Hogwarts' champion for the Tri-wizard Tournament," Hermione murmured to the rest as they took their places in the Gryffindor table.

"I was too, even though I was underage, so obviously Gryffindor is better," Harry replied, giving Hermione a cheeky smile. Neville barked out a laugh, but closed his mouth fast when he saw Hermione glaring at him.

"Oh, stop it, guys!" Ginny muttered, rolling her eyes. Just then, the doors of the great hall opened, and entered Ron in a dramatic manner. He walked in what was clearly meant to be a swagger. Lavender, Ginny and Hermione all rolled their eyes at Ron's poor display of masculinity.

"If you girls keep rolling your eyes like that all the time, they will soon pop out of their sockets," Dean said, looking amused.

"Nice mental image," Harry said to Dean, and the two boys gave each other a high-five. Parvati rolled her eyes at that, and then suddenly looked at them all, realizing what she had done. All four girls burst out laughing.

By now, Ron had reached them, but continued moving forward without sparing his friends a glance, his robes billowing after him.

"Is Ron trying to imitate our late professor Snape? 'Cause he's succeeding." Luna said, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, with an angelic look on her face. "I think it's nice that someone wants to keep Snape's memories alive," she murmured, as she took a sit beside Neville.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other and grinned. Ron was definitely trying to make an impression, they were both sure, but the two friends doubted whether Ron wanted people to think of Snape when they saw him. More like, Ron wanted to appear as cool as Viktor Krum. Winning one game against Harry, and only because Harry was busy making goo-goo eyes at Ginny, gave Ron the impression that he was excellent in Quidditch. After that, every time they played in the backyard at the Burrow, Harry just let Ron win to avoid dealing with Ron's foul mood throughout the whole day.

Ginny now scowled at Ron's retreating back and turned towards Luna.

"When did you arrive? We didn't notice you entering the great hall," Ginny said.

"Oh, I was right behind Ron, but I guess the wrackspurts must have obscured your vision, so you didn't see me," Luna replied.

"Yeah, better go to Madam Pomfrey and have your eyes checked, Gin," Harry said, grinning.

"Oi!" Nevilled scowled at Harry, where else Hermione poked him in the ribs with her wand.

"Oh, it's okay, Neville," Luna said, smiling, "Harry just has a lot of Nargles in his mind."

Dean burst out laughing, while Parvati tried her best to keep a straight face. Lavender, however, saw something at the entrance of the great hall, and began fuming. Hermione looked at the direction of her room mate's gaze, and her temper began to flare too as she saw three Slytherins making their way over to the Gryffindor table.

Pansy passed them without a word, and Malfoy slid in the space between Hermione and Neville. Hermione turned her head away, and decided she would just ignore her fiance. Harry and Ginny glared at the newcomer from the opposite side of the table, but the former Death Eater didn't even look up at them. He put his bag down at his feet, and started to eat.

Neville shifted uncomfortably, and turned to his other side to converse with Luna. Dean and Parvati, wanting to escape the awkward silence, moved slightly away from Harry and Ginny. They looked down at their plates and began eating their own breakfast. However, they couldn't escape what was happening in front of them as easily.

Zabini had placed himself in between Luna and Lavender, meaning Lavender couldn't ignore Zabini, like Hermione was doing to Malfoy, and simply chat with Luna. Where Hermione didn't mind conversing with Dennis Creevey, Lavender wasn't the type to entertain younger Gryffindors like Nigel. Hence began the battle of the sexes.

"What do you think you are doing?" Lavender spat at Zabini.

"Sitting beside my fiancee, as ordered by the headmistress," Zabini replied with a wink, as he took a hefty bite out of his ham sandwich.

"Move to this side, I want to talk to Luna," Lavender said coldly.

"Sorry, love. We were asked to sit with our betrothed, but it was not specified which side we should occupy. So, no, I'm not moving. I like it here just fine," Zabini said, grinning.

"Ugh!" Lavender muttered angrily. "Why can't you just let me eat peacefully? I already missed most of the meals yesterday because of you."

"If you would simply accept that you enjoy my kisses and want to progress our physical relationship further, instead of running away all the time, you wouldn't have needed to go hungry," Zabini replied, while wiggling his eye-brows suggestively at his fiance.

"I can't handle this first thing in the morning," Lavender screamed, and tried to get up from her seat.

"What is going on there?" The headmistress asked from her position in the teachers' table. All other teachers turned to look as well, as did most of the students in the great hall.

"I don't want to deal with this...this _pig_, anymore," Lavender screeched, staring menacingly at Zabini.

Not wanting to repeat her earlier mistake, McGonagall asked both the students to meet her in her office after breakfast. Hermione stared, mouth hanging open, as she realized that the headmistress was going to punish Lavender too. In Hermione's opinion, Lavender had not done anything wrong. Zabini was the one who was constantly provoking his fiance.

"I don't believe this!" Hermione muttered to Harry and Ginny "Why serve detention to Lavender as well? She's not the guilty party here," Hermione finished, throwing a dirty look at both Malfoy and Zabini.

Draco's lips slightly crooked sideways, though his eyes remained as stormy as ever. Hermione didn't miss the smirk, and her anger flared up again. As Draco was about to exit his seat with his bag, Hermione pulled at the sleeves of his black robes and prevented him from moving. He turned towards her, narrowing his silvery eyes.

"Don't think I didn't see that smirk on your loathsome face! What the fuck are you Slytherins up to?" Hermione muttered through her teeth, her voice taking a venomous quality. Draco clenched his jaw, and yanked his hand away from her, before turning around and walking away.

Hermione stood, fuming, as she saw Draco disappearing out the great hall. She couldn't believe what had just happened. It was her job to ignore Draco Malfoy, not the other way round. She had planned it that way, dammit.

"The nerve of the git!" Hermione continued, as Harry and Ginny looked worriedly at their friend, not understanding the source of such of unrelenting anger. "Who does he think he is? The cowardly prat!"

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Draco entered their first class of the day, potions, and threw his bag aside as he took a seat at one of the tables. He closed his eyes and winced, willing the headache to go away. He didn't know how long he would be able to handle Granger. It seemed the more he tried, the more unbearable his situation got. He was trying to be nice, for Salazar's sake! He was trying to change, to show everyone that he was not the whiny, insulting, prejudiced boy that he once used to be.

But would anyone bloody believe him? No! Potter and his friends still firmly believed that he was the cause of every mischief that occurred in this school, and of course, what the _great Harry Potter_ said, went. How was he supposed to restore his family's name and reputation if people were not willing to give him a chance? And if the mere students of this school still believed him to be a foul Death Eater, then how would he convince the outside world that the Malfoys have changed? After all, Potter had connection with the minister of magic himself, and he also was not too keen on believing that Draco Malfoy could change for the better.

Just then, the door to the dungeon opened again, and students began filling the class. Pansy, Blaise, and Greg came to sit with him for the time being.

"You okay, Drake? You don't look too well," Pansy asked, concerned. Draco opened his eyes slowly, and looked at his former girl-friend. Pansy was one tough cookie, but this marriage law seemed to have taken the steam out of her too.

"You don't exactly look perky either, you know," Draco gave her a slow smile, probably the first genuine one he gave today. Pansy had become a real good friend these days, and he loved to tease her now and then.

"Not that you already don't, but you would look like hell too if you had to get married to _dear Ronniekins_," Pansy muttered with a scowl.

"What? You are not happy?" Blaise joined, looking all wide eyed and pretending to look astounded, "Pansy, dear, you are marrying the idiotic third of _the Golden Trio_! You should be so proud," Blaise finished, with his hands on his heart.

Immediately the four Slytherins burst out laughing.

"Not cheating on me already, are you, my _Pansy Poopie_?" Ron said sarcastically, coming from behind them. "You are supposed to be sitting beside _me_, the _idiotic third_ of the Golden Trio, remember?" With that, Ron flipped Pansy the middle finger before going off to find a seat for himself. Draco narrowed his eyes at what he had always thought of as the blood traitor, where else Greg looked shocked.

"Awww, Pans, I think he heard us," Blaise said, in pseudo-sad voice, before laughing it off.

"Oh, how I hate that disgusting, red-headed, freckled-faced, insulting git!" Pansy muttered as she collected her bag and made her way towards her fiance.

Millicent Bulstrode entered the room then, and after seeing her, both Draco and Blaise quickly moved away to another table.

Lavender entered the room with Parvati, and completely ignored Zabini when she saw him. Instead, she went to an empty bench and sat there all by herself, as Parvati took another empty bench and waited for Dean.

Harry and Ginny, upon entering, looked for Malfoy and decided to take a sit near him, so that should he try to harm Hermione, they would be nearby to protect their friend.

Hermione herself came last, following Neville, Dean and Seamus into the class room.

"Where do you want to sit, Hermione?" Neville asked stupidly.

"If I had any choice, I would obviously prefer it to be with you three stooges," Dean and Seamus laughed at that while Neville looked confused, " but unfortunately, I need to sit beside ferret boy!" Hermione had said it loudly, and sure enough, she saw Malfoy stiffen. Good, she thought. She would see how long _Draco Malfoy _could go on ignoring her, as if she was nothing more than dirt to him.

Throughout the rest of the class, Hermione had let loose on snarky remark after another, and Draco had gritted his teeth, trying to keep his temper in check. When at the end of the class, Slughorn had happily announced that Miss Granger had once again topped the class and brewed the potion perfectly where else her partner Mr Malfoy needed a little more practice, Hermione had smirked at Draco.

"And the goblet thinks _he's_ the one best suited to me. He, who can't even brew a simple potion," snorted Hermione, before dramatically exiting the class.

Draco had had enough. He couldn't stand it another minute. Before anyone had had a chance to react to Hermione's unexpected cruelness, Draco had swiftly left the class, and took after Hermione. He found her not ten feet away. Grabbing her by the hand, he quickly jumped onto one of the moving stair cases, before Hermione had time to process what was going on. By the time she had recovered, Draco had pulled her up the stairs to a deserted corridor, and slammed her against one of the wall. Throwing his bag away, he put both his hands on the wall on either side of her, trapping her body with his.

Hermione stared up at him, and for the first time in her life, she was terrified of what Draco Malfoy might do.

**A/N:**** Let me know what you all think, please :)**


	8. Scars and secrets!

**A/N: ****First, thank you all for the lovely reviews. I really enjoy reading them all, and I'm very sorry that I don't reply to them. I don't get much time off from studies, so whatever I get, I spend them writing. **

**So, here's the next chapter.**

**Enjoy!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.  
**

The corridor was dark, illuminated only by a window at the far end of the castle walls. Not many people came to this part of the school, as there were no classes on this floor. Draco had found it during his sixth year, before deciding that the Room of Requirement was the best place to carry out his task. All that had happened over a year ago. Draco never thought about this place anymore. However, when his so-called fiancee had infuriated the hell out of him, he instantly knew that this was where he would bring her to teach her a lesson. Potter and Weasley knew about the RoR, after all.

Draco looked down at his future wife now. He had to look quite a way down, with his hair ending falling over his eyes, as Hermione Granger stood only a mere five foot four inches compared to his six foot two frame. Good, thought Draco. It was an added advantage when it came to intimidating her. For Draco knew he wouldn't really do anything to harm her. However, he also knew that with the anger that was etched on his chiseled face and grey eyes, he could scare his betrothed beyond reason. Her eyes were already wide with fear.

It was then that he noticed. Hermione was slowly inching her hands towards the inside pockets of her robe for her wand. Instantly Draco saw red. Here he was, trying so hard not to harm her, where else she didn't have any such qualms about hurting him. She would probably claim later that she did it all in self-defense. So, Draco roughly caught her hands, and held them above her head with his left hand. With his right hand, he took out his own wand and pointed it directly at her heart.

Two words, he thought, and not so difficult to pronounce. A flash of green light, and all his worries, and pain, and humiliation would come to an end. Draco forced his wand forward a little more as he held it above Hermione's breast. She gasped painfully. Performing the ultimate Unforgivable curse would most likely earn him a one-way ticket to Azkaban, but it was not as if he was living a better life now.

He wasn't the one to kill Dumbledore, and his parents switched sides in the end. Hell, his mother even saved Potter's life. Yet, did it make any difference? No. He was still treated like a convict, as if becoming a Death Eater was his choice. He would like to have seen what Potter and his so-called _brave_ Gryffindor friends would have done if they were given the choice between getting marked with a painful magical tattoo, symbol of a lifetime of servitude, or witnessing their parents' deaths.

Just the thought of his mother dying, her body cold and lifeless, made Draco shudder internally and grip his wand even harder. Immediately, he heard a small whimper.

"Draco, please, it hurts," Hermione said in a small voice. He saw that her eyes had filled up too. He would probably even leave bruises in her wrists, he was gripping her hands that tightly. Draco slowly lowered his wand, though not taking it off completely, but rather tracing it down from her breast towards her stomach. He then closed whatever little distance was their between them, and pressed his body hard into hers. His wand was still between them, and he was sure it was digging painfully in her ribs. He didn't care, though. Gripping her hands even more firmly, he slowly tilted his head and brought his lips near her ears.

"Does it?" He inquired softly, already sure that the force of his hard body on her soft flesh was making it difficult for her to breathe.

"Y...yes..." Hermione managed to say. Draco pressed even further, his body practically flattening her against the wall.

"And now?" Draco whispered, running his nose lightly up and down over the shell of her left ear.

"C...ca...can't...can't breathe," Hermione let out, trying to inhale in as much oxygen as she could.

"Beg then. Beg for my mercy!" Draco ground out through gritted teeth.

"I...I..."

Holding them tightly, Draco pulled her hands back before slamming them again on the rough castle walls. Hermione cried out in pain.

"Now!" Draco muttered darkly in her ears.

"Please, please..." Hermione sobbed, tears running down her cheeks. Immediately, Draco let her go and Hermione sagged onto the floor. As predicted, there were dark marks around her wrists, visible even in this dim light. Her face was tear stained, but Draco couldn't care less.

"If I could, I would strangle you to death and it has nothing to do with you not being a pureblood," Draco said hatefully, looking down at her. "If you want respect, learn to show some for others first. And don't preach house unity if you are going to point your fingers at Slytherins every time anything goes wrong." With that, Draco walked out.

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_One day later:_

"Come in, Mr Malfoy," the headmistress said, looking up from the papers in front of her. "Apparently, your mother has something she wants to talk to you about in person." McGonagall looked sideways to where Narcissa Malfoy was seating, and got up from her own chair. "You two can talk in my office. I'll step out for the moment." With that, Minerva McGonagall exited her office room.

Narcissa Malfoy got up from her chair at once and came to stand in front of her son.

"Are you okay, Draco?" she asked, concerned. "I got your owl and came immediately. I lied to Minerva when she saw me coming out of the fireplace. I said _I_ needed to discuss something urgent with you."

"I did something terrible, mother," Draco replied softly, looking down.

"What? What did you do?" Narcissa asked in a panicked voice.

"I hurt Granger," Draco mumbled in an even lower voice. "Physically."

"Draco!" His mother exclaimed in a voice full of shock. "Why? How could you?"

"She...she was getting on my nerves," he replied, his excuse sounding feeble even to his own ears. He was yet to raise his head and look his mother in the eye.

Narcissa sat down in her chair, her legs unable to support her at the news of her son's atrocious behavior.

"I thought I taught you better, especially in recent times," Narcissa murmured, her voice devoid of emotion, one that Draco really hated because it could mean only one thing. The solitary tear ran down his right cheek even before his mother had voiced what he already knew.

"I'm ashamed of you, Draco."

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_Almost a week later:_

"Harry, I'm so worried about Hermione," Ginny said slowly. She and Harry were sitting on a couch on the Gryffindor common room. Harry was leaning on one of the hand-rests, his legs bracketing Ginny's as she was sitting on his lap, her back and head resting on his chest.

"Why? She seems fine, other than that she has not jumped down Malfoy's throat after the first class that day last week. I really miss seeing her put Malfoy down."

"Did you ever wonder why?" Ginny asked, turning around to look at Harry. Harry shrugged.

"She probably got bored. After all, her exit line that day was spectacular," Harry grinned. "I had never seen Malfoy look so furious."

"Well, doesn't it seem strange to you that she has suddenly given up being mad at Malfoy, when that was all she had done from the moment she had first heard that she was destined to marry him?" Ginny persisted. Harry shrugged again.

"Come on, Gin, you know Hermione. She doesn't like to fight. Maybe she just accepted the whole thing. I mean, it's not like anyone can get out of this marriage law," Harry said. "Moreover, it's not like she turned over a new leaf and became friends with Malfoy. She just ignores him, as if he doesn't exist."

"Yeah," murmured Ginny, "but I don't know why, something just doesn't feel right."

Harry slowly encircled Ginny's waist with his hands and whispered huskily in her ear, "I can do something that will feel right."

Ginny giggled. "You do realize that not only am I a prefect, but that Hermione and Ron are Head Girl and Boy." said Ginny. "Don't you think it will be a little unwise for _us_ to break the 'No Sex' school rule?"

Harry sighed. "So what? We can't be together for the next ten months?" He huffed. "You know, Ron and Hermione can't do anything if they don't know about it. We are going to be married, for Merlin's sake."

"_I'll_ know, and I'm a prefect. What kind of example will I be setting if I start breaking rules myself?" Ginny asked with an innocent look. "And if Hermione and Ron knew what we want to do, they will bleach their minds first to get rid of the mental images before giving us detention for the rest of the school year."

"Speaking of Ron, where is that git of a brother of yours?" Harry wondered loudly.

"I don't know," Ginny sighed, "I talked to Bill today, and he said the headmistress was worried about how the students were reacting negatively to the marriage law. He also said that McGonagall has apparently taken a decision about what to do to overcome this problem. She will let us know during breakfast tomorrow."

Harry groaned. "I don't like the sound of it. McGonagall never hands out any easy tasks."

Ginny turned fully in Harry's arms and looked at him from under her lashes. "I can do something that will seem like an easy task," she purred seductively at him.

"I thought the female prefect of Gryffindor, along with Hogwarts' Head Boy and Girl, wouldn't approve?" Harry asked, raising his eye-brows.

"They can't do anything if they don't know about it," Ginny replied, "and I'm definitely not telling the prefect."

Harry laughed out before covering Ginny's lips with his. Ginny felt herself get swept away with passion, but not before her mind registered that she needed to find out Hermione's secret.

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Hermione moved in the dark room, being careful so as not to wake anybody. Lavender and Parvati were already sleeping, though Ginny was not in bed yet. Hermione tried not to think about where she was or what she was doing. She slowly moved towards the full-length mirror beside the window in their dorm room, housed in one of the Hogwarts towers, and stared straight at it. The day had been tiring. She was exhausted from all the studying she needed to do for the upcoming N.E.W.T.S.

However, what bothered her most was the secret she was keeping. She wished she could tell someone. Ginny was her first choice, but the red-head had a fierce temper. Hermione didn't want her to go and hex Malfoy. Not only did Hermione not need protecting, but if Ginny found out the truth, then it would mean Harry would know about it too. The last thing Hermione wanted was Harry fighting her battles. The boy had had enough of his own to last him a life time.

As she looked in the mirror, Hermione slowly started to take her robe off. As it fell on the floor along with her tie, she carefully unbuttoned her shirt. Parting it, she stared at her bra-clad body. Just below her left breast, there was a deep, dark gnash-like scar. Hermione unclasped the front clip of her bra. There was another one above her left breast too. As she traced them with her fingers, she stared at the marks around her wrists as well.

After that day, Hermione wore full sleeved clothes, so no one had seen her scars. They didn't hurt much anymore, but she still felt terrified when she thought back to that day. As she replayed the events in her mind, her eyes filled with tears, and Hermione cried silently...unaware of the dark hooded figure in a broomstick, observing her through the clear glass window.

**A/N:**** I know this chapter is a little depressing, but trust me, things will get better from the next one. Let me know what you all think, please :)**


	9. The marriage counsel class!

**A/N: ****Hello everyone :). First, thank you all for the lovely reviews. I love reading them. Now, I saw that some of you are worried that I changed the rating for this story. Let me make something clear here: **

**_There Will Be NO Explicit Sex Scenes In This Story. _**

**However, this is a marriage fic, so there will be some intimate scenes - but sensual, rather than sexual. I'll NOT be describing any wedding night in details, nor will my characters start talking dirty all of a sudden. **

**Some of my characters are already OOC, but that's because they had already suffered a lot in their young lives - war, deaths of family and friends, and then there's the marriage law. By the end of the story though, my characters will be back to normal, with the exception being that some of the Slytherins would actually end up being quite good too.**

**Having said that, the reason I changed my rating is because I believe that what is acceptable to be read by a nineteen year old is not always suitable for a thirteen year old, even though both fall under the category of teenagers. **

**So, to be on the safe side, I changed the rating. Hope that answers all your questions.  
**

**And now, lets move on with the story.**

**Enjoy!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

Bill Weasley heaved a ragged sigh as he plopped down on the chair behind his desk in his office room. His eyes were closed, and his long red hair was coming loose from his pony tail. An otherwise attractive man, Bill now resembled more like the scarred wizard that he was. However, his current predicament had nothing to do with Fenrir Greyback. No, not even the lunatic werewolf Death Eater had been able to pull down the spirit of the eldest Weasley boy, a task which apparently took only a handful of Hogwarts seventh years to accomplish.

Today was October the first. It had been exactly a month since the school had started after the second great war and the bomb, in the form of the marriage law, had been dropped on the already-physically-and-emotionally-injured students of Hogwarts. Naturally, the reception of the newest mandatory law had been apocalyptic, and Bill was only loosely using the term.

After over a week of suffering rash behaviors from students, Minerva had come up with a plan to make the students more accepting of their impending doom...err marriage. Bill was glad to see that he wasn't the only one opposed to executing the said plan. Other teachers had also agreed that the students should at least be given a chance to sort out their differences before having to go through such drastic measures.

The headmistress had given them the rest of the month. She assigned each teacher with a number of couples, and if by the end of the month the teachers succeeded in bringing about harmony between the parents of the future witches and wizards, also known as the current seventh year students of Hogwarts, McGonagall would forget about her master plan. Hence, the marriage counsel classes had began.

Yesterday, though, time had ran out...and Bill was nowhere close to bringing about peace to Hogwarts. He was also sure that the other teachers were facing the same problem. For a moment, he sympathized with his fellow workers. If what Bill had had to go through the past month was any indication, he was sure he wasn't the only one who had considered tearing out his own hair. In fact, Bill was sure he had been luckier than his colleagues.

After taking charge as the headmistress of the school, Minerva had not only appointed Bill as the new D.A.D.A teacher, but also had made him the head of the Gryffindor house. Thus, Bill had only needed to deal with Gryffindors and their partners. He wasn't biased, but he did believe that the best students eventually got sorted in Gryffindor.

At first, Bill had thought his task would be easy, and to some extent, it was. For example, the one-to-one marriage counsel classes were only for those couple who still found it difficult to accept their partners. It obviously meant that his sister and her fiance didn't need any counseling. Neither did the son of the former Aurors, Neville Longbottom and his fiance, Luna Lovegood. For a moment, Bill smiled. He had always thought his parents' neighbors, the Lovegoods, were a bit mental. Thus, Luna not needing any kind of counseling was a bit astonishing.

However, there were a lot of other couples who were in dire need of the marriage counseling, and Bill had saved the best, or the worst depending on how one looked at it, for the last. It was because he wasn't really ready to have _personal life_ information about his fellow Light side members divulged to him. He had his brother and the girl he almost considered his own sister, or atleast had once thought would become his sister-in-law, in that list, for Merlin's sake. Bill wasn't ready to hear whether the reason Ron and Hermione hadn't yet accepted their partners was because they found their betrothed unable to...err arouse them physically.

_What?_ He had heard worse terms used while conducting the marriage counsel classes. Of course, he didn't really blame the students for being so blatant. Minerva had asked him and the other teachers to offer butterbeers to the students while counseling them. The students were also meant to drink the butterbeers before the teachers began questioning them. That was because, unbeknown to the students, the butterbeers contained Veritaserum in them. McGonagall didn't want to deal with a bunch of liars. She had enough trouble with them as it was, and she was desperate enough to try anything to bring about a little peace and quiet to Hogwarts, and consequently, the wizarding world.

Thinking of the wizarding world in general made Bill Weasley let out another groan. Not only had he needed to deal with Ron, Hermione and other Gryffindor seventh years, but he had to put up with his mother, Fleur, George and Charlie too. Since the marriage law applied to all witches and wizards aged seventeen and above, the ministry had used the goblet to find partners for all eligible wizarding population of Great Britain, starting with the off-springs of ministry workers. The goblet was modified so that both males and females would be able to pick out the names of their partners, not just witches.

Bill had already been married to Fleur and Percy was engaged to his long-time girlfriend Penelope Clearwater, so they were exempted from taking part in the marriage law. Charlie and George, however were not. They were summoned urgently to the ministry, and were handed the names of their future partners by the goblet. Both his brothers were furious with Bill, and also with Percy and their father for they had know as well what with being ministry workers and all that, for not telling Charlie and George in advance about this hasty system of the marriage law.

George had complained that if he had known an engagement would mean he wouldn't be subjected to the goblet, he would have asked Angelina Johnson to marry him right away. That had not sat well with Mrs Weasley as she believed that George and Angelina didn't really love each other, and the only reason they were close was because they both had loved Fred. She was actually very happy that George ended up with Katie Bell, and Angelina was paired with Oliver Wood. Their friends Lee Jordan and Alicia Spinnet got paired up as well.

Charlie, on the other hand, simply had not wanted to get married. Ever. However, the ministry didn't care. In fact, when the goblet threw a paper at Charlie that contained the name of a Romanian girl called Oana, the minister had exclaimed that it was fate, as he was well aware that Charlie wanted to reside permanently in Romania to work with dragons.

Hence began the torture that Bill had to face, as he got owled everyday by his family members. His mother complained that George and Charlie were being difficult, Fleur complained that his mother was always complaining to her about her two wayward sons, Charlie complained about how he still didn't want to get married, and George complained, or rather threatened, how he would hex his eldest brother to the next millennium if he was forced to marry Katie.

Frankly, Bill was getting tired of hearing everyone complaining to him all the time. He thought back to yesterday, remembering the four couples he had a one-on-one chat with. The first ones, and probably the most silly ones, were Mr Finnigan and Miss Bones. As he had welcomed them in his room cordially, and offered them butterbeers, the stupidity of their situation had began.

_"So, what seems to be the problem? You two know you can't get out of this marriage law, so why not just accept it?" Bill had questioned mildly.  
_

_"I wanted to marry someone hot," Mr Finnigan had gruffed._

_"And I wanted to marry someone with brains," Miss Bones had replied, glaring menacingly at her partner._

Like he said before, utter stupidity. Not showing any emotion on his face, he had asked the couple to sort out their problems fast, or they would have to face the wrath of the headmistress. Somehow, Bill was sure that was one couple that would indeed be part of Minerva's master plan. The next couple had been Lavender Brown and Blaise Zabini. Bill had heard that Ron had briefly dated the Brown girl in his sixth year, and none of his siblings, nor Harry, had anything nice to say about the girl. Hermione had remained silent on the subject. So, naturally, Bill was not looking forward to counseling that couple. After welcoming them, and getting the required procedure with the butterbeers done with, Bill progressed to questioning them.

_"It's plain and simple," Miss Brown had replied to his question, looking at him as if Bill was mentally impaired, for the answer should be clear to him. "I don't want to marry a disgusting, slimy Slytherin."_

_Bill had sighed. He knew the marriage law was the wrong way to go about the interhouse unity. He had looked at Mr Zabini then, expecting a similar retort._

_"I am in lust with Lavender Brown," Mr Zabini replied happily, then looked shocked at what he had uttered in front of a teacher. Bill knew it was the effect of Veritaserum - the students couldn't lie.  
_

Once again, Bill sent the couple away, telling them to stop being ridiculous and act like matured eighteen year olds. In other words, accept the marriage law. Not that they had any choice in the matter. Bill really dreaded conversing with the next couple, as he would need to face his brother soon. Miss Parkinson showed up on time, even if she kept complaining about the ridiculousness of the whole marriage law, the counseling and of course, what Bill assumed was her favorite subject when it came to bitching, Ron. The said subject showed up thirty minutes late, and said he had ten minutes to spare, before he needed to head out for Quidditch practice.

Bill knew it would be useless to point out to Ron that he had not been punctual in attending the counseling class. He also wanted to know why Ron was eager to take part in Quidditch practice, seeing that Harry was still the captain. As far as Bill knew, Ron was still acting like a git towards his best friends. Then again, their next match was against Slytherin, and considering how much they wanted to put down Malfoy, the Slytherin captain, Bill assumed Ron and Harry must have put aside their differences for now. Or atleast, Harry did, Bill amended.

After the whole polite welcome and offered butterbears, Bill started with the whole process again.

_"Are you sure you want to know, professor?" Miss Parkinson had replied with sarcasm, "For _Mr Weasley_ here doesn't have time, and I'm sure I would take a while to state all the reasons. Merlin, but I could probably go on and on for forever as to why I believe I shouldn't marry such a blood traitor."_

_"Yes, 'cause the blood traitors are obviously worse than the pureblood Death Eaters," Ron began, sneering at his fiancee, "who, may I point out, _lost_ the war while siding with the maniac Voldemort."_

_"I'm not a Death Eater, you prat, and _you_ didn't kill the dark lord, Harry Potter did," Pansy muttered angrily._

_"No, you are not, but your whole family is, I'm sure, as are your dear_ friend_, Draco Bloody Malfoy," Ron replied, his face red with pent-up rage. "And since when do you champion Potter, anyways? He's a filthy half-blood, not your loving pureblood, you know." Ron's face took on a pseudo-contemplative look then, and he exclaimed dramatically, "Oh no, let me guess. Voldemort was a half-blood, so now you _love_ half-bloods as well as purebloods. Tsk, Tsk, Parkinson! Dreaming about having menage-a-trois with Malfoy and Potter, are we?" Ron smiled cruelly._

_Pansy Parkinson looked shocked at first, and then she burst out laughing. Both Bill and Ron had frowned at her, wondering if her senses had temporarily taken leave of her._

_"You're jealous!" Pansy exclaimed with a smirk. "You are not only jealous of Draco, because yes, given a choice between you two, I _would_ pick him over you, but you are also jealous of your own friend, Potter."_

_Ron, who had just taken another sip of his butterbeer, spluttered it all out on Bill's working robes and began stuttering his response. _

_"_What?_ N-n...you...you..." _

_Bill sympathized with his brother. Because of the Veritaserum, Ron was unable to lie. Hmm, thought Bill. The whole marriage counseling thing might be not be so bad after all. Finally, he was able to grasp the reasons for Ron's strange behavior. What was astonishing was that Miss Parkinson had spotted it almost immediately. After all, they had only been forced to interact with each other a couple of weeks ago. From what he head heard, those encounters had not really led to any meaningful conversation. _

_Today's exchange was probably the only lengthy conversation the two had in their whole lives, and they had only been in Bill's office for three minutes. Maybe the goblet was right. Maybe Miss Parkinson _was_ the ideal match for Ron. No one had been able to figure out Ron's quirkiness that fast._

_"I guess I can understand why," Pansy continued when Ron was unable to form a coherent sentence. "With so many accomplished older siblings, you craved to become some sort of a hero to get everyone's attention. However, it was Harry Potter who was always the Chosen One. You were merely his sidekick. And even then, you were not very helpful, were you? I mean, at least Granger had the brains, which came in handy when you three needed to get out of a tight spot. However, you had nothing to offer," Ron stared in horror as Pansy went on with her vocal monologue. "Then to make matters worse, Hermione Granger, the girl you have secretly been in love with Merlin knew for how long, chose Harry over you during your hunt for Horcruxes. Yes, we Slytherins know all about it. You will find that there are very few things that you can keep hidden from us, including the fact that when your brother died and you expected Granger to revolt with you against all Death Eaters, the Brightest Witch of our Age hurt you by siding with The Boy Who Lived and letting bygones be bygones." Pansy smiled up serenely at Ron, confident that every word that had left her mouth were true. "In fact, no one supported you. Not your friends, and even not your own sister. To top it all off, Granger, the love of your life, ended up being the perfect match of your arch nemesis, Draco Malfoy and _you_ ended up with _me_, the same Draco Malfoy's ex-girlfriend."_

_Ron had desperately tried to deny everything, but the Veritaserum wouldn't let him lie. Pansy got up from her chair, and made her way towards the door._

_"Not in a million years would I have chosen you as my husband, not even if you were the last wizard on earth," Pansy replied, turning to look at Ron, "But if there's one thing we Slytherins have in common, it is the fact that we would do anything for our reputation, for our respect, for keeping our names out of mud. If that means we have to marry blood traitors, we will, but we are not so cheap so as to cheat on anyone. We also value what little friends we have above all else. Hence, Draco will always be a part of my life - as a friend. You can make out of it whatever you want, but think carefully about everything I said." With that, Pansy Parkinson had walked out of Bill Weasley's office room._

**A/N: So, there you have it :). I hope now you all understand Ron a little better, and why Pansy is the best choice for him. I wanted to add the Draco and Hermione's counsel session too, but I think too much information would have ended up confusing everyone. On the bright side, you will be able to read about it tomorrow. Let me know what you all think, please :)**


	10. Minerva's master plan!

**A/N: ****Hello everyone :). First, thank you all for the lovely reviews. I can't believe we crossed 100 already. I mean, this is my first HP fanfic, and I thought I'll at least need to write about 15 chapters before crossing the 100 reviews mark. 'Cause, you know, there are like thousands and thousands of other HP fanfics. Also, Dramione is not really the most popular couple, except in my eyes, of course ;). Sorry Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione lovers.**

**Anyways, I didn't want to continue from Bill's perspective anymore, as I'm sure you already got a fairly good idea why I was doing it in the first place - the Veritaserum in butterbeers and Minerva's master plan. As the name of the chapter suggests, you will get to read about the master plan in here - really, you should all have guessed it by now.**

**However, I'll reveal Draco and Hermione's counsel session, but from Draco's perspective. I find that I really enjoy writing about the Slytherins. Maybe because we have already read so much about the Golden Trio and their friends. **

**Anyways, that's enough from me. Let's move on to the chapter, and keep the reviews coming. They really make me want to update the story everyday.  
**

**Enjoy!!!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

Draco took his time as he slowly sauntered across the Slytherin common room. Blaise, Pansy, Theo and Goyle were already sitting down in various sofas, waiting impatiently for him. He didn't care, though. Malfoys were always fashionably late, and his friends should know better than to expect otherwise from him. Well, as a matter of fact, his friends _did_ know. That was why no one complained when Draco finally sat in the only arm-chair, legs stretched out in front of him in a regal manner.

"So?" Blaise began, "How did it go with _professor_ Weasley? I take it he asked us all the same questions?"

Draco turned to Goyle. "You first," he said in a voice that brooked no arguments. Goyle sighed.

"If you mean whether we were asked as to why we still had trouble accepting the marriage law and our intended, well, yeah, he did ask us that," mumbled Goyle in a low voice. Draco raised one perfect blond eye-brow.

"And your reply was?"

"I tried to come up with all sorts of lies, but for some odd reason, simply couldn't voice them."

Draco shook his head. What an idiot, he thought_._ He looked sideways at the others, and from their expressions, it appeared that Nott was the only other one who also was unable to figure out what the D.A.D.A professor had done. He shook his head slightly. He had no idea how morons like Goyle and Nott ended up in Slytherin. Slytherins were supposed to be cunning, for Salazar's sake. There was a reason why Occlumency and Legilimency were the trademarks of every Death Eater, of every pureblood, of every _Slytherin_.

He supposed it was only because they were purebloods that they got sorted into the great Salazar Slytherin's house. Otherwise, Draco was sure, that Nott and Goyle would have ended up in Hufflepuff. Actually, considering that Cedric Diggory had been from Hufflepuff, maybe he shouldn't be so rash to put down that house. Maybe Hogwarts should have had another house - a house for the mentally handicapped.

Pansy and Blaise burst out laughing. Draco turned towards them, and glared. Okay, so it was an innate quality, ever since they are taught Occlumency and Legilimency, of every Slytherin to invade the mind of everyone surrounding them, but that was no reason to get into the head of a friend. Especially when that friend was him, Draco Malfoy.

Pansy and Blaise stopped suddednly, and Blaise raised his hands up, as in surrender, and Pansy murmured a quiet 'sorry'. Goyle and Nott looked confused.

"What's going on?" Nott asked, his brows furrowed, as he looked at his three friends.

"Nothing," muttered Draco, irritation lacing his voice. "What did you say to Weasley?"

"I had the same problem," replied Nott with a grimace. "I just couldn't lie, though I did mange to say that I didn't want to marry Hannah as I didn't like Hufflepuffs."

"Yeah, me too," butted in Goyle, "That was the only thing I was able to say, that I didn't want to marry Millicent."

"That's because those were the truths, you retards," grumbled Blaise. Nott and Goyle looked confused again. Pansy rolled her eyes at them, and turned to Blaise, knowing full well that Draco would go last.

"What about you?" Blaise scrunched up his nose in disgust.

"I realized too late what our_ professor_ had done," Blaise said. "Considering how they always preach about honesty and all that bull, I didn't think a former Gryffindor would do something so sneaky." But then Blaise's face brightened, and he looked happily at his friends. "No matter, though. I didn't say anything I didn't want to. Merlin, but you should have seen the look on Lavender's face when I revealed I was in _lust_ with her. It was priceless," he grinned.

In spite of himself, Draco gave a slight smile, as he slowly shook his head. He would never understand his friend. Like himself, Blaise Zabini stood for everything Slytherin. How he manged to fall for a Gryffindor was beyond his understanding. But then again, he himself got paired with the ultimate Gryffindor, so maybe Blaise was just trying to make the most of his situation.

"Glad you understand," Blaise told Draco, with a smug smile. Draco didn't smile back. Blaise didn't deserve it, not after performing Legilimency on him again. So, Draco turned towards Pansy.

"What about you? You seem quite calm about your counsel session, and also pretty happy with yourself."

"Oh, I am," Pansy replied gleefully, rubbing her palms together for added effect.

"Oh, get on with it already," Blaise huffed, "We already know what a cunning bitch you can be." Pansy glared in his direction.

"Witch, witch...I meant witch," Blaise said, then smiled slyly at Draco.

"I saw that," Pansy scowled, folding her arms over her chest.

Draco laughed. It was good to be back with his friends. He didn't have to pretend with them, so they were fun to hang around with.

"Alright, stop it, you two," Draco commanded with pseudo-angry voice. "Pans, tell us what happened?"

"I know why Weasley is behaving the way he is," she replied with a smirk.

"Weasley?" Blaise asked, looking shocked. "Whatever happened to calling him Weasel or Weaselby?"

"Oh, grow up, Blaise," Pansy replied, rolling her eyes. However, Draco could tell that Pansy's feelings towards the red-headed git was changing, even if it was at a snail's pace, though he didn't mention it to her. Instead, he asked Pansy to continue.

"Well, from what I gathered from the counseling, what it boils down to is that Ronald Weasley is jealous," Pansy said, her hands making a gesture like a magician's flourish, and took a bow. While the others began making derogatory comments about how the Weasel had every reason to be jealous as he was ugly to look at and was as poor as a church mouse, Draco took notice of two things.

First, Pansy didn't elaborate what else she had found, giving rise to Draco's original suspicion that Pansy was developing some sort of bond with the blood traitor. Second, as Draco delved in Pansy's mind and found the tit-bit of information he was looking for, Draco could use Pansy's findings to make the miserable git jealous. For this was something he was sure about - Pansy may have started to accept her fiance, but the prat still lusted after Hermione Granger, _Draco's fiancee_.

Pansy must have suddenly realized that Legilimency was being performed on her, as she quickly looked at Blaise and then Draco. By the time Pansy turned towards him, Draco had already extracted himself from her head, and looked at his other friends in an amused manner. He pretended as if he was far too occupied with the antics of his friends' impersonation of Potter's clumsy sidekick to take any notice of Pansy.

Pansy frowned a bit, not sure what had happened, before turning towards Draco and smiling brightly.

"What about you, Draco? How did your meeting go with professor Weasley?"

Another giveaway, thought Draco, before closing his mind off to intruders, or rather, nagging friends who had no respect for others' privacy.

"It was interesting," he said with a mysterious smile. He could still remember it with clarity and felt like laughing aloud at the expression Granger had sported. He thought back to what had happened yesterday evening, careful so as not to reveal anything should his friends try to invade his mind. Draco Malfoy, after all, was good at both Legilimency and Occlumency.

_The professor was staring expectantly at them, hoping one would answer the question soon. Draco looked down at his butterbeer. He had become suspicious the moment he was offered the drink that something was not right. A few seconds later, he had extracted the necessary information from the pathetic-excuse-for-a-professor's mind. However, there was nothing he could do. If he didn't drink it, the eldest Weaselby was going to get suspicious, especially as his _dear fiancee_ was gulping it down like there was no tomorrow. _

_Draco had tentatively taken a sip, hoping he wouldn't be asked any compromising question. He had worked too hard to get where he was. After the incident at the corridor, Granger had not meddled with him again, and if everything went according to plan, then soon the muggleborn of the Golden Trio was going to pop out his half-blood babies and help him re-establish his name. Narsissa Malfoy would have her respect back, and hopefully in the future, the Malfoys would once again be the most revered family in the wizarding Britain. _

_"Hermione?" The Weasel had asked, apparently giving up on him. Good, Draco thought. The less he talked, the less chance of him giving anything away._

_"What do you want me to say, Bill?" Hermione's use of the professor's first name gave away how agitated she really was. "Where do you want me to begin? Should I say that I can't accept _him,_" she had pointed a finger at Draco at that point, "because he had called me every dirty name in the book for the last seven years, or should I mention how I was tortured by his aunt at _his_ house while we were on the run? Do want me to say how he made life miserable for Harry, Ron and me while we were all at Hogwarts, or do you want me to talk about how his family practically spat at me and my family for being muggleborn? What, Bill? What else do you want to know?"_

_Hermione had then put her head on the table, and her shoulders shook slightly. Obviously, she was crying. Draco was glad she hadn't mentioned what had happened recently at that empty corridor, for he was sure he would have been sent to Azkaban for his behavior. Or at least, McGonagall would have served him detention, just to get one above him. The headmistress had not been happy when he had pointed out that she always preferred Gryffindors. Snape had shown the same bias towards the Slytherins, but it was useless and disrespectful to drag a dead man's name into the mess. At least, Draco thought so._

_"And you, Mr Malfoy?" Draco looked up from his butterbeer, and stared at the professor stonily. Internally, he was all smiles. This was his moment to shine, this was the moment to convince everyone that he had changed, no matter how untrue the truth was. Actually, he was glad of the Veritaserum in the butterbear. They wouldn't be able to accuse him of lying. Of course, what he would say _was_ partially true. He _was_ glad to be marrying Granger, he really _didn't_ have any problems with her. He would just left out the bit about _why_ he was accepting all these so easily. Hopefully, the Weasel wouldn't question him about it._

_"None," he replied, looking the professor straight in the eye._

_"Excuse me?" The professor was clearly baffled, not expecting such an answer from him._

_"I said none. I don't have any problems with the marriage law...or with Hermione Granger. I accept both."_

_Draco had a hard time controlling his features after that. If he was not careful, he would have burst out laughing. The looks he got from both the Weaselby and his fiancee were hilarious. They were staring at him, wide eyed, and their mouths hung open in a similar fashion. _

_The red-headed wizard, with his mouth still open, was looking at Draco, then at his butterbeer, and then back at him. Draco dampened his urge to smirk, sure that if he did that, the professor was going to get suspicious. So, he looked at his fiancee instead. She resembled a fish, as she opened and closed her mouth, at a loss for what to say._ _Draco wanted to be even more dramatic, and apologize for his past behavior.__ But then he thought better of it. The Veritaserum in the butterbeer would not allow him to lie, and the truth was he did not regret what he had done in the past._

"That's it? That's all you are going to say? _Interesting_?" Pansy exclaimed, clearly outraged.

"I don't owe anyone any explanation," Draco replied, coolly.

"B-but...we...we..."

"Oh, give it up, Pans," Blaise said, as he tried to hold Pansy's hands, who was flailing her arms wildly about her. "If he doesn't want to, then you know we can't get anything out of him."

Draco smiled at his friend in a feral manner.

"Fine," huffed Pansy, glaring at him. Then she turned to the rest. "Let's go get breakfast. It's already half-fast eight. We don't need to be late anymore, _fashionably _or otherwise," She gave Draco a pointed look as she said it.

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The three Slytherins were sitting at the Gryffindor table and was quietly eating their food. Draco noticed out of the corner of his eyes that his fiancee was giving him surreptitious glances, but he gave no indication that he noticed. He pretended as if his full concentration was on his food.

There were other things he noticed too. For starters, the Brown cow had not screamed and screeched at the sight of Blaise. Contrarily, she was giving him flirtatious smiles. Pansy was doing well, too. Not only there were no bickering going on between his ex-girlfriend and his fiancee's ex-boyfriend, but both Pansy and the Weasel were actually sitting with Granger and Potter.

Draco frowned. He hoped all was not too well between the red-headed prat and Pansy. He wanted to have fun at the expense of the git by making him jealous, but that wouldn't be fun if the foul prat was falling for Pans. She already seemed to have made an impression on him. Draco was sure that her words yesterday were the reasons that made the lame third of the Golden Trio decide to joined his best friends.

At least, the three were not talking yet. Potter and Granger both looked gobsmacked that Weaselby was sitting with them. Maybe Draco would have his fun, after all.

"Good morning, students," the headmistress boomed, as Draco slowly raised his eyes to watch McGonagall trying to get everyone's attention. "Could everyone, other than the seventh year students, please vacate the great hall?"

Suddenly, the great hall was buzzing with gossip, as the younger students started analyzing about why the headmistress wanted to talk with the seventh years only. When Mr Filch had ensured that all students, bar the requested ones, had left, Minerva performed various magic so that no one could eavesdrop or enter the great hall.

"Now, there's no need skirting past the inevitable," the headmistress said, looking sternly at the students. "The reason why you are all here is because I have come to a conclusion, or rather have taken a decision." Harry, Hermione and Ginny looked at each other. They even shot a furtive glance at Ron.

"The teachers have reported back to me with the results of the marriage counsel classes. As I had expected, it had been a futile effort," McGonagall continued, giving the witches and wizards at the teachers' table a tight smile. "So, now I'm going to add a new curriculum to your daily routine. Every student must attend it with their intendeds. No exceptions will be made. I don't care if any of you are sick, bleeding or have even lost a limb. If you are alive, then you _will_ attend this new lesson," Minerva practically growled at her students.

The students winced at the harsh words of the headmistress, already sure that they are going to hate whatever McGonagall had come up with.

"And now, before I reveal the activity of your new lesson, let me present the teacher who would take your class," Minerva looked at the hidden door at the corner. "Please welcome, Professor Andromeda Tonks."

Harry's eyes nearly bulged out of his socket, and he looked around to see a similar expression on Ron's eyes. Hermione and Ginny simply looked stunned, where else everyone else looked confused. Obviously, most people had no idea who Andromeda Tonks was, except for, maybe, Draco Malfoy. Draco narrowed his eyes as he looked at his estranged aunt.

"So, now that you have met you professor, let me tell you what your new lesson will constitute of -" the headmistress said, facing the students once again. "Dancing."

**A/N: I know Draco seemed like a git here, but he thought he had won. It takes time to change old habits. No matter, though. His new lesson will put him in his place, and the much awaited romance will begin. Let me know what you all think, please :)**


	11. Meddlesome portraits and sexual tension!

**A/N: ****Hello everyone :). Once again, thank you all for the lovely reviews.**

**Okay, first things first. I see that a lot of you are confused by the new Hogwarts professor. I don't blame you. JKR did come with pretty confusing names. **

**The one in this story is ANDROMEDA TONKS ****_NOT_**** NYMPHADORA TONKS_. _Nymphadora Tonks, better know as Tonks, died with her husband, Remus Lupin in the great war. Andromeda Tonks is Nymphadora Tonks's mother, hence grandmother of Teddy Lupin. She was Andromeda Black once, and is the older sister of Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange.**

**However, I'll admit that the reason I chose Andromeda is because I will make her have the same qualities as her daughter - tomboyish and clumsy. Also, Andromeda will help the Golden Trio, especially Hermione, see that Narcissa and Draco have indeed changed for the better.**

**Hope that clarifies the confusions. I also hope that you all won't be too disappointed, because you all seemed to be really happy to have Tonks back. Sorry, but this story will have Tonks's mother, not the original one. However, I hope you will like this one too :).  
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**Enjoy!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

The moment Minerva McGonagall entered her office, she was accosted by two men. Well, not literally, but nevertheless, it was still as bad.

"Well done, Minerva!" said the man with the long, white beard and half-moon spectacles. "I am proud of you. Even I could not have come up with something as daring as that," with that the former Hogwarts headmaster, also know as Albus Dumbledore and the Greatest Wizard of All Time, gave a hearty laugh.

"I don't see what's there to be proud of," said a bored voice, though the look he sported was quite a fierce one. "This is a school for teaching how to control and develop advance magic, not for giving lessons on how to prance like an idiot."

"Now, now, Severus," said the man from the portrait on Minerva's right side, "there's no need to get your knickers in a twist. I know that you had not been able to get a chance to showcase your inner swan at the Yule Ball, but you only have yourself to blame. If you had had the courage to ask the Ravenclaw house head before you got beat by a house ghost, I'm sure you would not have felt like a wallflower on that charming, magic-filled day."

"Oh please," sneered the black, oily-haired man from the portrait on Minerva's left, "Like I would ask out a Ravenclaw! I'm a Slytherin, and only someone from the house of the great Salazar is good enough for me."

Minerva closed her eyes as she tried to take a few deep breaths and calm herself. This was what she had to come back to every single day. Ever since the school reopened, the two former headmasters thought it was their duty to help and guide Minerva through the difficult task that was her job. Every single day, Minerva let the old fool and the not-quite-so-old-compared-to-Minerva fool get their advises out of their system, hoping that one day they would get bored and simply stop bothering her.

However, it had been over a month, and the two gits were as annoying as ever. Seriously, thought Minerva, those two were dead. Didn't they realize that yet? Only a deep respect for the white haired man and sorrow, for she had finally known the truth about his unrequited love, for the dark haired man made Minerva keep quiet all these time. But now she had had enough.

"You look constipated, Minerva," observed the man from the right portrait, his eyes as twinkling as ever. "Are you all right?"

"Why should I be?" Minerva said, finally letting go of her calm demeanor, and glared at the old man. "What is there to be okay about? Not only do I need to deal with a world left broken by a psychopath wizard, a barren land devoid of hope and happiness, but I've to deal with the ministry's outrageous laws as well, and consequently, a bunch of ruddy seventh years."

"Ah, finally you admit it," said the hooked-nosed wizard with a smug expression. "I always knew those kids were a bloody menace."

"Yeah, well, let's not forget that you were one too, Severus," Albus Dumbledore replied, looking very happy with himself. Severus Snape scowled, though he tried to look indifferent.

"Stop it, you two," Minerva mutter angrily. "Just go to some other portrait in some empty room, and squabble to your heart's content. I have enough on my hands. I don't need two dead, meddlesome former headmasters thrown in for good measure too."

"Well, you only have yourself to blame, _headmistress_," Snape sneered in his monotonous voice.

"What do you mean, Severus?" Minerva asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Well, you did hire Andromeda, didn't you? To give dancing lessons, no less." The black-robed man looked haughtily away, as if the headmistress should get the gist of his words by now.

"So?" Minerva asked, clearly befuddled.

Snape sighed, but then glared at the white bearded man when he saw him chuckling. He immediately went to the latter's portrait.

"You told her to hire Andromeda, didn't you?"

"Severus," Dumbledore sighed, "would you mind going back to your portrait? You are invading my privacy here. Not to be rude, but you do not really possess the most elegant of manners. I mean, you _are_ currently stepping on my pristine silver robes. I'm quite fond of them, you know."

Snape huffed, and returned to his original portrait.

"What was Severus on about, Albus? And don't tell me you are not trying to change the subject. I have known you for years. You should know better than to try and fool me."

Snape snorted at that, and mumbled something that sounded eerily like _'He already did'_.

"My dear Minerva," said the old-yet-still-charming wizard from his very comfortable position in the portrait, fully aware that there was nothing the new headmistress could do to bodily harm him, seeing that he was already dead. "I merely suggested that you hire Andromeda Black-Tonks. Was there anything wrong with that?"

Minerva frowned, still missing the point, for she was sure there was one. True, Andromeda was an elegant, well-behaved, good-natured, widow, but there was something she didn't know, or else Severus would not be looking so pleased with himself.

"I still don't understand..."

"Andromeda, Minerva, you hired Andromeda," Snape replied, exasperatedly. "Marrying the muggle, Ted Tonks, wasn't the only embarrassing thing the eldest Black girl had done. That was the final foolish act on her part, before she was disowned by the Blacks."

"I..." Minerva began, still looking confused.

"Remember her in her school days?"

And that was when Minerva understood what Severus had been trying to hint at all this time, something Minerva had forgotten due to the stress and agitation caused by the situation she was currently facing with the students.

Andromeda, the eldest sister of the three Black girls. Andromeda, the dark-haired clumsy girl who couldn't stand straight even if her life depended on it. Andromeda, who either displaced or broke one thing or the other where ever she went. Andromeda, who usually sent someone or herself landed in the hospital wing every time she tried to fly on a broomstick. Andromeda, whose dancing skills back then made even Hagrid appear like a graceful figure skater.

Minerva groaned, thinking about what she had gotten herself into, and looked scathingly at the portraits. Snape looked busy with his hair, trying to part them and make them look like a curtain around his long face, and Dumbledore smiled mysteriously, his only parting shot being, "It's for the greater good."

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In the end, there were only six of them sitting at one end of the once Gryffindor table - Hermione, Draco, Pansy and Ron on one side, and Harry and Ginny on the other. Seamus, Dean and Parvati had taken one look at the group, and hurriedly moved away, without bothering with any explanation. Lavender had followed her best-friend without a word, though this time she did look back and smile shyly at Blaise Zabini. Naturally, he had sprinted away after his fiancee. Neville and Luna had stood awkwardly beside the six students, unsure as to how to get away from his friends without hurting their feelings. Neville did open and close his mouth a few times, doing his best impersonation of a fish out of water, to say something appropriate but clearly failed miserably. Finally, it was Luna who saved the day.

"We would have liked to sit with you, but there's a loud buzzing here, so naturally the wrackspurts would not allow us to have a proper conversation," she said, smiling benignly at them all. Draco and Pansy looked as if Luna had clearly taken leave of her common sense, Ron rolled his eyes and looked away, and Ginny and Harry looked at each other since they couldn't figure out individually what Luna was talking about. Seeing as that no one was going to, Hermione decided to ask Luna what she meant, more to get rid of the uncomfortable silence than any genuine interest in whatever Luna was trying to say.

"How about you explain in plain English what you mean, Luna?" Hermione asked, giving her friend a genuine smile.

"The tension, Hermione. There's far too much surrounding you all. It's so thick that, how do you say it in muggle language? Oh yeah, it's so thick that it could be cut with a knife," Luna finished smiling, before her face took on a contemplative look. "You know, I never tried that before, cutting tension with a knife I mean. Do you think I should try?" She asked, turning towards Neville.

"Um, no. You will probably end up hurting the rackparts," Neville replied, hoping his answer would make sense to Luna. "L-let's go, Luna. I see pudding over there." That got Luna's attention, and she followed her fiance as he pulled her away.

Hermione looked shocked and a bit uncomfortable at what Luna had just said. The truth was, after what had happened with Draco in the corridor weeks ago, Hermione felt a little weird every time her fiance came near her. There was this uncomfortable feeling in her stomach whenever she came in contact with Draco. For some reason, she knew he would not hurt her, so she couldn't explain why she felt like butterflies were invading her tummy any time Draco Malfoy touched her inadvertently.

Ginny looked speculatively at the couple in front of her, both of whom, their eyes downcast, were trying their best not to touch each other. Ginny may be the younger of the two girls, but she knew that she was also the more experienced one. Hermione and Draco were clearly physically attracted to each other. Shifting her gaze a bit, Ginny noticed that Pansy Parkinson was also giving knowing smiles at her best friend and his fiancee. Pansy's fiance, however, was glaring at Ginny's fiance. Ginny turned around to see the same expression on Harry's face too.

She rolled her eyes. She would not get in the middle of Harry and Ron's problems, she decided, when an idea suddenly struck her. She smiled deviously, and thanked Luna in her mind for giving her the idea. Pansy saw the smile on her future sister-in-law's face, and wondered what the younger witch was up to.

"Luna is right," Ginny said, staring intently at Hermione and Draco, "the sexual tension between you two is really something." As she had expected, both Draco and Hermione snapped their heads up and looked incredulously at her. Ginny raised her eye-brows at them, before smiling wickedly and turning towards Harry.

"You sure you are dating the right Weasley, darling? Or is there something you would like to confess?" Ginny smiled sweetly, as Harry stuttered and Ron turned as red as a ripe tomato. Pansy burst out laughing, and Hermione looked confused.

"What about you, Ron?" Ginny turned her attention to her brother. "Is that why you are behaving so rudely? Because I stole Harry from you?" Pansy was now clutching her sides, as tears of laughter formed at the corner of her eyes. Draco was the only one with an expressionless face. However, as soon as he invaded her head and saw what she had done, Draco gave a slightly crooked smile.

"You are good, Red, very good, I'll admit," he said as he stared straight at her. Ginny blushed, realizing that Draco had somehow guessed what she had done. Pansy looked at the two, and immediately performed a legilimency herself on Ginny. Once she had extracted the necessary information, she smiled at Ginny.

"You know what, love?" Pansy said, her face in her hands, looking straight at Ginny. "I think you and I are going to be great friends."

Ginny was about to deny it when she saw that Pansy had turned away and was smiling slyly at Draco, who was scowling in return. Ginny grinned before adding, "I think you are right."

Harry, Hermione and Ron looked confusedly at the others, probably in agreement about something for the first time in months.

**A/N: Okay, I know the chapter is not too big, but I've a lot going on at the moment. Let me know what you all think, please :)**


	12. Aphrodite's Blessings!

**A/N: ****Hello everyone :). So yeah, it's been a long time - one month to be exact. As you might have suspected, updates will not be everyday from now on. However, I'll try for weekly updates. Once again, thanks for the wonderful reviews. **

**P.S. The central characters are definitely Draco and Hermione, but I like writing about others too, so have patience and bear with me.  
**

**Enjoy!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

It was strange what time and maturity could do to people. If they had been told by someone three years back that one day Ginny Weasley and Pansy Parkinson would become friends, both would have recommended that the said someone be immediately admitted to St. Mungo's. However, recent times had helped both the witches to grow up faster mentally, and also taught them how important happiness was in life. That was what brought them together in the first place.

Pansy was not a selfish, rude, bitchy witch anymore. In fact, where Draco was concerned, she never was. True, back in those yearly days of their education, Pansy had thought she would eventually end up being the next mistress of Malfoy Manor. However, Draco and Pansy had parted ways long before the marriage law had been passed. The Yule Ball was the last time when the two had been really happy together. Cedric Diggory's death, and the following burden to succeed in the Dark Lord's mission had put Lucius Malfoy in a precarious position, and subsequently, put Draco in a darker place too. It was then, in their fifth year, that Draco had broken up with Pansy. By the time their sixth year rolled around, Pansy was glad to have had a clean break from Draco, and was happily seeing Blaise. That didn't last either, but neither Pansy nor Blaise had any regrets about it.

However, Pansy still greatly valued the friendship she had with both her ex-boyfriends. Hence, naturally, she wanted both of them to be happy. Blaise being Blaise, it would mean that he would end up being happy no matter what the situation was. Pansy had no doubt about that. Draco, though, was an entirely different matter. It was as if Lucius had taught his heir how to brood only, for that was what Draco did best. So, obviously, Pansy decided to take matters in her own hand. It was up to her to make sure that Draco got his 'happily ever after'.

Ginny Weasley, on the other hand, believed in fate. For example, the day she had met Harry for the first time, in platform 9 3/4 at the tender age of 10, Ginny knew she was fated to love Harry Potter forever. The goblet only proved what she already knew to be true. It would seem the goblet believed too that Hermione was fated to be with Draco Malfoy. Well, who was she to question fate? It was useless, anyway. Wasn't it fate that dictated that Voldemort was to die in the hands of Harry Potter?

Ginny was nothing if not practical. Well, maybe she was a little romantic too, but that would actually come in handy for the mission she was about to embark upon. For a moment, Ginny grimaced. She couldn't believe she was about to pull a coup, yeah she liked dramatic words and effects, with Pansy Parkinson as her ally. But then again, Pansy was going to be her sister-in-law soon and pop out little Ron Weasleys, so she might as well get reacquainted with the Slytherin witch.

The two cunning witches decided, via owl mail, to meet in an abandoned girls lavatory on the fifth floor on a dark dark night. They both thanked Merlin for making Hogwarts a place which had plenty of such places. If nothing else, it would at least mean that they wouldn't have to share and discuss their plans with Moaning Myrtle. A haunted bathroom didn't exactly make up the kind of environment needed for making the plans that would unite the Gryffindor princess with the Slytherin prince.

Pansy was the first one to arrive at their pre-scheduled destination. One look at the interior of the bathroom, and she really didn't want to know how Ginny Weasley had found that place. No wonder the Gryffindors had kicked the Death Eaters' asses, thought Pansy. If the Golden Trio and their friends hung out at such places, Pansy was inclined to believe that Voldemort had never really stood a chance with Harry Potter as his nemesis.

The place was dark, dirty, and Pansy had this weird feeling that she was being watched. The witch found the place creepy at best. Hence naturally, when the doors opened and closed quietly, and Pansy saw spells being cast, she screamed her lungs out. Hearing her sudden outburst, the other person followed her example, and let out a blood-curling scream too. Soon the lavatory was filled with loud noises, and it was only when the door was blasted off and a light appeared that they both stopped and looked at the new comer.

"What's going on in here?" hissed an angry Ginny as she put the door back with a few spells.

The light from the end of Ginny's wand revealed the third person beside Pansy and Ginny to be Parvati. One look at her fellow Gryffindor, and Ginny groaned.

"Not here, Parvati," the red-headed witch muttered. "Go find some other place to snog Dean."

"But he'll be here soon..." Parvati started, but was interrupted by the opening of the once-blasted-but-now-completely new door. Dean looked at the three witches, and appeared to be confused.

"Go take your fiancee to the Room of Requirement, Dean. I've important business to do here," Ginny said to her ex-boyfriend. By process of elimination, Dean realized that Ginny's 'important business' had something to do with Pansy Parkinson. From what he knew of her, Ginny was exceptionally gifted with hexes, and Dean hoped the Slytherin witch would still be in one piece the next morning. However, Ginny was looking extremely pissed-off and Dean didn't care enough for Draco Malfoy's ex-girlfriend to be tangling with his own ex, so though he knew that the Room of Requirement would now be occupied by a fumbling Neville and a dreamy Luna, Dean said nothing as he took hold of Parvati's hand and went off in search of another empty, abandoned toilet.

As soon as the door closed behind the two Gryffindors, Pansy and Ginny turned to glare at each other and started talking at the same time.

"What the hell were you shouting for?" Ginny asked, hands on her hips.

"Couldn't you have found a better place to meet?" Pansy forced through gritted teeth, hands folded over her chest.

"Will you two stop screeching?" Voiced one of the many merpeople from the painted glass-panes of the lavatory windows. "I'm trying to relax here."

"Ugh!" Ginny muttered and looked ready to tear her hair out. "This is going disastrously and we haven't even started."

Pansy let out a very un-ladylike snort. "You're telling me," she muttered. Ginny turned to her with narrowed eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, who chooses such a shabby place to hold a meeting?" Pansy retorted. "And I can't believe Patil and Thomas actually came here to make out. I mean, look at this place. It's got to be the most unromantic place ever. Hell, this place probably can give the Shrieking Shack a run for its money."

"First, this place is perfect for holding a secret meeting," Ginny sneered. "If you had screeched like you just did in any other place, McGonagall would have had you in detention by now for staying out of bed after hours." Pansy's lips thinned as she realized the truth behind Ginny's words.

"Well, I was scared. Parvati was wearing white and that was all I was able to see when she entered the..."

"Second," Ginny cut her off, pretending she didn't even hear what Ron's future bride was saying, "it must be the reason why Parvati and Dean are getting more action than you as you refuse to snog in inappropriate places for in case you didn't notice, shagging is not allowed until you are married." Pansy would have pointed out that the reason she wasn't getting any was because she wasn't interested in Ronald Weasley that way, but she knew that that wasn't completely true anymore. She and her fiance had reached a reluctant truce and Ginny Weasley knew that.

"And third, we are suppose to device a plan to get Hermione and Malfoy snogging, so forget about what Dean and Parvati are doing or not doing," Ginny finished with a scowl. Pansy sighed.

"You are right," she said to her future sister-in-law, "Draco's mood swings these days have really been killing the fun out of us all. He needs to lighten up, and the only way that can happen is if he is getting some action in the bedroom."

"Yeah, well, Hermione needs to come down her ivory tower too," Ginny agreed reluctantly. "That girl has gone too long without a guy. The last guy she kissed was probably Viktor Krum, and that was back in fourth year." Of course, Ginny knew about Ron and Hermione's kiss during the war, but she was unwilling to bring it up in front Pansy, seeing that she was about to marry her brother and all.

"So, how do you suggest we do that?" Pansy asked, looking straight at Ginny. From the smile gracing the Gryffindor witch's face, she was sure that the red head had already figured out something.

"With this," replied Ginny, grabbing two small vials from the pockets of her robes and holding them out proudly. All Pansy saw was crystal clear solutions in the two small containers.

"Liquid Luck?" Pansy asked, frowning.

"Of course not," Ginny murmured indignantly. "These are _Aphrodite's Blessings_, a potion that was invented by a muggle-born witch." Pansy looked confused for she had never heard of such a potion. "According to legend, the witch Serafina Kaput was in love with a muggle, but never had the courage to tell him because of what she was. The muggle guy died in the second great muggle war, and after his death, a diary of this dude was discovered where he had written that he had always been in love with Serafina."

Pansy had no idea why the pathetic love story of some witch and muggle was important in getting Draco and Granger together, but she decided not to interrupt the potion brewer.

"Hence, Serafina devoted her life in inventing a potion that would act as something called a _cat-a-list_ in muggle potion studies -"

"The muggles study about potions?" Pansy interjected, surprised.

"- about, well yes, apparently they have a subject called _kemistry_ which is similar to potions, or so Hermione and Harry said. Anyways, this muggle witch succeeded in brewing a potion that would make the drinkers admit their love to the person they have feelings for."

"And you think Hermione and Draco are in love with each other?" Suddenly, it didn't seem like a good idea to Pansy to be collaborating with Ginny. The witch had clearly lost it if she thought her best friend was already in love with the reformed Death Eater. From what Pansy had seen so far, the female third of the Golden Trio barely tolerated the new master of the Malfoy Manor.

"Yes, or they soon will be. It's fate. Now listen to me," Ginny muttered irritatedly. "Make sure Malfoy drinks this during breakfast tomorrow. Mix it with his pumpkin juice when he's not looking." Ginny handed Pansy one of the small vials holding the clear liquid. "I'll do the same with Hermione. By the time we have our first dance class with Andromeda tomorrow, Hermione and Malfoy would be the new Golden couple of Hogwarts," declared Ginny happily, as she made her way out of the deserted bathroom, followed closely by Pansy.

What Ginny had forgot to mention to Pansy was the reason why this mushy-named potion never became popular. It was not Ginny's fault, for considering her impatient nature, she had never really bothered to look that up while she had been searching the library, quite uncharacteristically, about an easy love potion as Amortentia was quite tricky to make. The problem with _Aphrodite's Blessings _was that one could never tell whether the potion had been correctly brewed or not.

It was true that the final result of a finely brewed _Aphrodite's Blessings_ should result in a colorless liquid, but it would remain colorless even if the potion was the final product of incorrect quantities of the correct ingredients. It was precisely because of this reason that Ginny thought that she had brewed the potion just fine, when the truth was that the number of white chocolate mixed in her potion far exceeded the required amount. Ginny was never good at guessing at weights, so when the potion said 20 oz of white chocolate, the red-headed witch had simply opened the box of chocolate she had received as a gift from Bill and Fleur, and poured as many white chocolate as could find into her cauldron.

The result of which had not been a genuine love potion that would allow its drinker to confess his or her love that much faster, but rather a powerful lust potion that would keep its drinker in a constant state of arousal until he or she had a heavy snogging and making out session with the object of his or her desire.

**A/N: Let me know what you all think, please :)**


	13. Gryffindor princess N Slytherin prince!

**A/N: ****Hello everyone :). Thank you for the wonderful reviews. I enjoy reading them all, even though I don't reply. So, I'd like to do that here: THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO READS, REVIEWS, AND ENJOYS THIS STORY. I REALLY COULDN'T HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOUR LOVE AND ENCOURAGEMENT. **

**Now that that's over, let us begin ;).  
**

**Enjoy!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

October had settled in good and clear, and it was time for the Hogwarts final year students to have their special dancing lessons. Harry and his friends had went in beforehand, last night to be precise, to welcome their new teacher, as they were all very good friends with Andromeda. It was amazing what a war could do to people. True, uncountable precious lives had been taken far too soon, but the loss and pain had also brought the most unlikeliest of people together.

Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Luna had never even met Andromeda until a year ago, and yet now they were all pretty close to the newest addition of Hogwarts staff, especially the boy who lived, his female best friend and his fiancee. The visit to Andromeda's living quarters was quite eventful. No one, who wasn't close to the Tonks's, probably knew, but Nymphadora Tonks had inherited most of her qualities from her mother. It was not to say that the deceased young Auror had not been brilliant by herself, but her clumsy ways had definitely been passed on from her mother.

"Hi Andy," the group had chorused when they were let in in Andromeda's new place inside the castle. The nickname 'Andy' was what Andromeda's friends used to call her when she was young. Seeing as she had lost so many of her loved ones in the war, Andromeda had asked the younger generation to call her by that loving name. What did age matter when it came to friendship? Perhaps that was the beauty of the relationship that everyone said lasted forever.

Andromeda had got up from her desk to give them all well-deserving hugs, but of course she misplaced the paper weight, by mistake mind you, and the wicked-witch-of-Oz shaped crystal structure went flying and crashed at the wall behind the newcomers, narrowly missing Harry's head. The boy who still lived groaned internally in a defeated manner, somehow already knowing that he would be fighting to stay alive for the rest of his lives. After what he had been through for the past eighteen years, both at the hands of the Dursleys and the cowardly Voldemort, he didn't think life would suddenly turn _normal _for him.

"Harry, are you okay?" Hermione, the ever concerned friend, asked. Her face was a mixture of amusement and sympathy. It sometimes seemed weird to him, but Hermione was the only one who truly understood him. For instance, Harry knew that Hermione _knew_ what exactly Harry had just acknowledged to himself a moment ago. Hence, her sympathy. Even Ginny didn't get him that well sometimes. Maybe that's why he felt like he was really Hermione's brother - someone who loved her a lot, but not in the romantic way.

"Oh, you know he's alright," Ginny said, rolling her eyes at the two, and pulling Harry from behind her and pushing him towards the front. And that was the reason why Harry loved Ginny in a very cheesy, mushy, and _oh, so romantic_ way, because she knew exactly what Harry wanted to feel like - a man who was strong, capable, and most importantly, needed. There were other things too, like the way he felt when they kissed and made out, but that was a story for another day. Harry was sure he could spend days day-dreaming about all the reasons why he and Ginny were perfect together, but that would require him to take leave of his others senses and just feel. Naturally, now was not the time, as he wanted to have his wits about him, to prevent further chances of injury while still in Andromeda's territory.

"Oh, dear Harry, are you okay?" By now, Andromeda had already reached his side, and Harry didn't want to worry the older witch. There was a pressing question that he wanted to ask the grandmother of his god-child.

"I'm fine, Andy," Harry answered, aware that Ginny was giving everyone a _I told you _look. From his peripheral vision, he saw Hermione roll her eyes at Ginny, where else Luna had apparently moved to a corner and seemed to be poking the air with her wand. Neville looked flabbergasted, darting his eyes from the shattered paper-weight, to Harry and company, to Luna.

"Andy," Harry asked, leaving his friends to their own devices, "Where's Teddy?"

"_Ah_! Teddy, yes, yes...he's grown quite a lot since you three last saw him, you know?" Andromeda said, suddenly avoiding everyone's eyes. The witch turned away, and began making her ways to a nearby cup-board.

"But where's he now?" persisted Harry, not sure he liked this sudden change in his new professor. Andromeda was always honest and truthful. "Who will look after him now that you will have to live here?"

"Oh, I've found someone to look after him," Andromeda said, as she took out a cookie jar from her cup-board, and and came to stand in front of-her-soon-to-be-pupils. She began handing cookies out to them, all colorful and shaped like flowers.

"Eat, eat, I made them myself just for you all. Molly's not here to feed you, so you must not be getting proper nourishment."

The group of friends, Luna had joined them when she had seen the cookies, looked at each other. They knew something was not right, and Harry was determined to find out what. However, they decided to humor Andromeda and eat the cookies - which were absolutely delicious, the way they melted in their mouths.

The cookies also had another great quality, one that only Luna was aware of. The cookies had a distinct smell of vanilla, one that was characteristic of a particularly powerful forgetful potion, _Recuerde Que No_. This potion gave the brewer the ability to make the drinkers forget whatever the the brewer wanted to keep secret. When Luna had smelled the cookies, she wanted to tell the others that she suspected drops of the _RQN_ potion was mixed into the cookies. However, she had never tasted one, she hoped, as it was said to be pretty tricky to make. Hence, Luna decided to try the cookies and be sure, before letting others know. What the mostly-functions-in-a-dreamy-state witch forgot to take into account was that once she tasted it, she would forget all about it. And as Andromeda had wanted, so did the others.

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

As she sat down on their table in the great hall, Hermione realized she wasn't feeling so well this morning. There were so many things that had her worried and confused, that she had no idea which one of those contributed to the splitting headache she was currently suffering from. To start with, there was their dance class, which would take place in a few hours. Hermione was not a great dancer, hence it wasn't an activity she was too fond of. Throw in the factor that her dance partner was none other than _the_ Draco Malfoy, who, unfortunately, was also her fiance, and Hermione simply wanted the earth to open up and swallow her whole. It would definitely be better than hearing the _cute, white, bouncy ferret_ jeering at her lack of skill on the dance floor. Oh yeah, Hermione thought acidly, the unanimously-voted-by-the-Slytherins-as-their-prince-and-on-his-way-to-being-the-Slytherin-King would definitely make the most of her disposition.

Then there was also the way she felt these days around the said prince. It was not like she was not aware of what she was feeling, but she refused to acknowledge it as what it was _supposed_ to be. There was a reason why everyone called her the Brightest Witch of her Age. Gaining knowledge was her passion, but that didn't mean her reading list was limited to text books only. Hermione Granger had read a good romance or two.

If those novels were correct, then that meant Hermione was developing a physical attraction for her future husband. She snorted at the thought. _Yeah, right!_ It was so untrue that Hermione would have laughed at it had someone else been the victim of it. Unfortunately, she didn't see the humor as it was happening to her. Still, she refused to believe that she could be remotely interested in someone who had not only tormented her ever since she had stepped foot in Hogwarts, but who, as recently as a few weeks ago, had physically hurt her.

Hermione shuddered at the thought. The events of that day still had her breaking out in a sweat. She had fought in a war against Voldemort, she had the Cruciatus Curse performed on her by a psycho witch, but never during those times did she fear that she might be physically abused or...or _raped_. However, when her _darling fiance_ had thrown her against a wall and pressed his big body on hers, Hermione was seriously worried about her virtue.

She was not stupid. She knew she would eventually loose her V-card to the former Death Eater, but she didn't want the events to occur before marriage, nor did she want it to happen without mutual consent, even if that was given reluctantly by both parties. Thus, there was no way Hermione would accept that she had the hots for _dear Draco_, no matter what the famous fictions said.

Dealing with these growing uncomfortable feelings for the soon-to-be-Slytherin King, however, were not the only thing Hermione had to deal with. There was also the fact that she had this nagging suspicion that she was being watched...at night...by someone from her window. It made a shiver go down her spine. The war was over, and they had won despite suffering many loses. Hermione was really not ready for stalker-type Death Eaters. Apparently, Harry was not the only one trouble liked to follow. Maybe, none of them would ever really have any peace and quiet.

One look at her friends, though, and Hermione realized that they all looked better than her. Dean and Parvati were feeding each other morsels of food as they sat close together, and whispered quietly. The blush Parvati wore was quite telling. Her friend Lavender, apparently now totally over her dislike of her fiance, was practically sitting on Zabini's lap, and snogging like crazy. Their food was left forgotten. Hermione noticed that Draco and Pansy were missing, as was Ron.

Harry appeared pretty happy too, as he slowly trailed kisses up and down Ginny's neck. Considering that Ron wasn't here, and neither was Bill at the teacher's table, Hermione guessed that Harry had a lot to be happy about. She wasn't entirely sure Ginny's elder brothers would approve what he was doing, defeater of Voldemort or not. Ginny looked quite perky too, but it wasn't because of Harry's ministrations. On the contrary, she even didn't seem to notice Harry's actions. Instead, she was looking straight at her.

"Hermione," Ginny said in a sing-song voice, "You don't look too well." Hermione thought it was rather odd that Ginny would look so happy about it. Wasn't she supposed to act all concerned or something?

"And I can see that that is making you very happy," Hermione replied in a mock-sarcastic manner. Ginny just laughed.

"Yes, I'm happy, because I have the perfect remedy for you," Ginny replied, and in a very dramatic manner, brought out a vial of clear liquid from her robe's pocket.

"Felix Felicis?" Hermione inquired, with a frown on her face. Even Harry had stopped his kissing and was now looking between the two girls.

"Yep," answered Ginny, though there was a certain gleam in her eyes that, should anyone had paid proper attention would know, indicated mischief was about to happen. It was the same gleam that was always present in the Weasley twins' eyes, before Fred's untimely death, and also in the eyes of the youngest and eldest two Weasley sons on certain occasions. Percy Weasley was the only child born of Arthur and Molly Weasley without a funny bone in his body.

"Ginny..."

"Listen to me, Mione," Ginny started in an authoritative voice before Hermione could protest fully, "I can see that you had a horrible couple of days. As your best girl friend, I would have expected you to come and talk to me about it." Hermione suddenly felt slightly ashamed, and she quickly looked down. Of course, what she didn't know was that Ginny was deliberately trying to make her feel guilty. "However, I'll not hold it against you." Hermione looked up at the red head. "Not if you take the potion. I wasted precious time that I could have spent with Harry, Mione, just so that I could make this potion for you. From where I'm sitting, it seems like you could do with a bit of luck, babe," Ginny ended her speech gently, patting the back of Hermione's hand over the table.

Hermione sighed. Maybe Ginny was right. Maybe she_ did_ need a bit of luck, and just be happy and tension-free for one day.

Ginny had already mixed the potion with her pumpkin juice and handed her the goblet. Determined not to chicken out, Hermione took the goblet and drowned its content in one gulp. Okay, maybe two, or three. No sooner had she drank the juice, she felt its effect...and had a strong urge to murder Ginny slowly and painfully as she saw the Cheshire Cat like grin stretched across her friend's face.

The doors of the great hall burst open, and in walked Draco, with Pansy running after him. One look at him, and the way Pansy was throwing troubled glances at her future sister in law, and Hermione knew Draco was feeling the same way as her. There was no turning back now, not until the effects of the potion wore off. As Draco, with a pained look which Hermione was sure mirrored hers, quickly made his way to her, she tried to to keep her hands busy by clutching her robes tightly at her sides.

It didn't work though. The moment he was within touching distance, Hermione leaped up from her seat and closed the gap between them. With great effort to keep themselves in control, all both managed to mutter was a strangled 'sorry' to each other, before all hell broke loose as the occupants of the great hall witnessed in awe the first kiss between the Gryffindor princess and the Slytherin prince.

**A/N:** _**Recuerde Que No **_**is Spanish for _Remember Not _(I hope, as I used Google translator)**.** I know, not very creative, but oh well. Anyways, as always, let me know what you all think, please :)**


	14. The Head of the South!

**A/N: ****Hello everyone :). I know, I know. It's been a LONG time since I last updated. But here's the good news: You are looking at an update NOW ;). Okay, so maybe that wasn't funny, but I'm missing my sense of humor these days :(.  
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**Enjoy!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

History was being made at the moment, and Ginny-Weasley-for-now-but-soon-to-be-Potter wanted to go to the teachers' table and shout out loudly from there that _she_ was the one who needed to be thanked for it. For if not for her, no one who was currently occupying the great hall, would have ever had the lucky chance to witness the famous Hermione Granger being snogged senseless by the infamous Draco Malfoy. The two were pressed so close together that they appeared to be one entity instead of two separate forms.

Hermione's hands were clutching and pulling the hair at Draco's nape, where else Draco's hands were lost somewhere in Hermione's robes. Their bodies looked molded to each others - from legs to their...err abdomen, from her supple breast and his rock-hard chest to their swollen, bruised lips, Draco and Hermione appeared to be one person. As the time ticked by, the reactions of the students surrounding the new golden couple began to change.

After the initial shock and surprise wore off, everyone was plagued with different thoughts. Some began to feel disgusted by this amorous public display of affection, mainly because they were not getting any action themselves, where else others wondered at the awesome ability of the witch and wizard to go on so long without air. However, that didn't stop the couple from continuing their action.

Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy were both wise enough to know that they were under the effects of some very powerful potion. The two of them were also practical enough to know that it would be a futile effort to fight what was happening to them. So instead, in the hopes that if they worked fast enough, the effects of the potion would wear off and they both would be free to kill two annoying and interfering witches, the engaged couple let the potion control their actions, and continued to kiss, and lick, and bite and do other delicious things to each other with their lips and tongues and teeth. Their hands were not idle either. While Hermione's were busy feeling the soft hair at her fiance's nape and trying to pull his head closer, even though it was impossible for the said head to get any more close than it already was, Draco's hands were busy taking inventory inside Hermione's robe.

Draco had no idea when his hands had gotten inside her robes, for he was sure he had started by holding her shoulders above the robe. However, they were now in what must definitely be heaven, as he felt under his fingers the smooth silk fabric of her top , the outline of what appeared to be a thin, lace bra, her arched back, and the best part, her soft and rotund bum. Draco was clearly unable to think with his head...or at least, the head that was attached to his shoulder. For there was no way he would ever do in his right mind what he was about to do now.

Seeing that his hands were already on her arse, Draco gave the soft globes a quick squeeze. As good as that felt, he wasn't sure he was ready for the chaos that had ensued. If he had been in possession of a time-turner, Draco would have really gone back in time and undo what he had done...until he was alone somewhere, most likely his bedroom, with his fiancee and her luscious backside.

Because as soon as he had carried out the action, pinching his fiancee's butt, Hermione had yelped in his mouth and jumped a little, moving even closer, and unintentionally bringing her nether region in contact with his. Although, he was good deal taller than her, but he was already bending in order to kiss her thoroughly, and naturally, his dick stood in attention when it sensed it's home nearby.

Draco opened his eyes, his lips still locked with his Hermione's, and found her staring at him, wide-eyed. He had no doubt that she was giving him the eyes-as-wide-as-saucers look because of the hard length of his that was pressed against her stomach. With greatly difficulty, the two pulled apart, but their lips wouldn't stray far from each other. At least, they were able to breathe again, even though he continued to pepper the corner of her lips with soft kisses.

His fiancee returned them all, probably as unable as he was to stop kissing, thanks to the potion they were made to drink by their now-ex-best mates. Still, Hermione looked rooted to the spot, no doubt because of the still pressing matter between their bodies. Draco inhaled as much oxygen as possible between the butterfly kisses he was bestowing upon his fiancee, in the hopes that some oxygen would reach his head, not the one in his pants, and he would be able to function properly.

Draco was sure that once his brain cells were working properly, they would tell the head that lived down south to calm down, for Hermione Granger was not a witch sexy enough to embarrass themselves over with. However, the head of the south had been looking for its home ever since Draco had made the mistake of pressing his body to Hermione's that week in the dark corridor. In fact, every time he hovered beside her window at night like a Death Eater, or worse, a Dementor, it wasn't because he was thinking with the head that sat atop his shoulder.

No, that would be because of his boy down there, who not only got excited every time Draco inadvertently touched Hermione Granger, but made him loose sleep so that he could turn into a creepy stalker. He was still thinking about his precious, although wayward, family jewels and kissing his fiancee while his hands refused to move from her bum, when the great hall was filled with a shrill sound that Draco never wanted to hear again.

From the grimace his soon to be wife was sporting, he was sure that Hermione Granger felt the same way. Yet, they couldn't break away.

"WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME IS GOING ON HERE?" Minerva McGonagall screeched at her students. As she was the last one to arrive, she didn't particularly like being ignored, especially when she saw that the reason the students, and teachers alike, were otherwise occupied was because some ruddy witch and wizard were in a lip lock. In cases such as these, a teacher was immediately supposed to punish the participating students. Perhaps, Minerva decided, she needed to have a word with her staff.

At the sound of the headmistress's voice, the teachers and students parted, so as to give her a full view of the culprits. Minerva marched angrily, shocked that the said culprits still didn't stop snogging even after she put so much effort in her voice to scream that loudly.

It was as she drew near that she recognized the offenders and practically went catatonic. Forget Hermione Granger, but not even Draco Malfoy would ever commit such a crime intentionally. Hermione Granger would rather get killed and Draco Malfoy would rather kill, before either of them would be caught dead in such a position, that much Minerva was sure of.

And that was when she heard the soft, "Uh oh,".

Minerva turned slowly, and her eyes came to rest on the gorgeous, red-headed witch who had murmured those two simple, yet so destructive-for-them-at-the-moment words.

The proud, dark-haired Slytherin beside her started to slowly move away, but Ginny Weasley would need to be completely nutters to let Pansy Parkinson get away now. She grabbed and held on tightly to the witch who would be her future sister in law. Ginny didn't mind sharing the glory all alone, in fact she rather preferred it that way, but there was no way she would ever go down on her own, especially when she _did_ have an accomplice. More over, it was time to practice being sisters.

Harry Potter, on the other hand, felt relieved to be able to inch his way out. He felt bad for Ginny, he really did, but he realized he deserved some consolation prize for having to watch, still, his best-friend-and-almost-sister suck faces with Ferret Boy. As he slowly backed away from Ginny, while Minerva advanced menacingly towards his fiancee, Harry found himself bumping into the fiance of Ginny's helping hand, also known as his other once-best-friend-but-not-sure-now-where-we-stand Ron Weasley.

Harry and Ron looked at each other, not sure what to say. Knowing how proud Ron can be, not to forget how much he missed having him around, Harry decided to make the first move.

"So...,"

"Uh...," Ron replied, after some hesitation.

"Ginny and Pansy...," Harry started and then trailed away.

"Yeah...," Ron said, a bit awkwardly.

"Did a bad thing," Harry supplied, motioning with his head towards Hermione and Draco Malfoy. Ron winced at the sight.

"Real bad," Ron answered with a grimace.

"Guess they are in trouble," Harry said, as he watched Minerva stop in front of his and Ron's almost wives.

"Too bad, huh?" Ron replied, a smile trying to break free on his face.

"Real bummer," Harry agreed, nodding his head slowly, as he too tried hard to fight off a smile.

"Think we should..." Ron began, not sure whether to continue. Harry looked at him, and realized how much he had always enjoyed spending some bloke-to-bloke time with Ron.

"Sneak off and celebrate with some butterbeer?" Harry asked, a wide grin on his face. Ron looked surprised, and hence naturally, unable to speak. Harry frowned then, and looked over at the-still-plastered-together Hermione and Draco Malfoy, and turned back to Ron.

"Actually, make that firewhiskey," said Harry to a bewildered looking Ron. "I'm sure Bill has them and would lend us some. I really really need it to get the image of Hermione snogging Malfoy out of my mind," Harry finished with a grimace. Ron's expression changed from slow comprehension to a grimace of his own.

"Then, let's go now, before we have to endure anymore," Ron muttered, and quickly made his way out the hall, Harry following close behind.

Seeing that the girls were staring dreamily, though nothing new for Luna, at the locked-in-a-passionate-embrace couple, Neville, Dean and Seamus exchanged knowing glances, and hurried after the male members of the Golden Trio.

Zabini, finding himself _not_ being the center of Lavender's attention at the moment, pulled Nott and Goyle by the collar of their robes and exited the great hall. He was wise enough to know when not to be in Draco's vicinity. Pansy would get into enough trouble as it was, the boys didn't need to lose their balls just because Draco might hex them out of sheer anger.

Meanwhile, Minerva had been circling Ginny and Pansy like a vulture over a dead corpse, looking up and down the witches' forms.

"Miss Weasley, Miss Parkinson," Minerva addressed pleasantly, giving the younger witches a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Care to explain _that_?" Minerva indicated, with one long, bony finger, at her favorite student and her fiance.

"I...We..." Ginny stammered, where as Pansy whimpered and tried to hide behind the red head. Minerva turned towards her staff.

"Horace, William, Poppy," barked Minerva "please somehow take Miss Granger and Mister Malfoy to the hospital wing and do whatever, and I mean _whatever _- potions, jinx breakers, medical treatment, it takes to get them back to normal."

The three hurried away, Bill scowling at Ginny before moving on, and tried to untangle Hermione from Malfoy. Failing that, they pushed at the couple and slowly made their way towards the door of the great hall.

"You two," Minerva turned and looked pointedly at the two _real_ culprits, "in my office. Now!"

As murmurs and snickers filled the great hall, Minerva went up to the teachers' table and turned her angry gaze at the student body. "I believe all you seventh years have a class now," smiled the headmistress in a benign manner. "Don't keep Professor Tonks waiting."

**A/N: Okay, so this has got to be my least favorite chapter. It did not go at all the way I planned. But I figured I kept you guys waiting for a long time. So, I'm posting this anyway, even if I'm totally dissatisfied with it. Hopefully, I'll be in a better mood soon, and the next chapters will be enjoyable. Sorry about how this one turned out :(.**


	15. Incoherent Ramblings!

**A/N: ****Hello everyone :). Okay, so apparently, some of you guys did like the last chapter. I was surprised at that, as it's not a personal favorite. Anyways, my lab sessions are over and I only need to write the dissertation (which can be done from my dorm), hence I'll hopefully be able to update every week.  
**

**Now, on with the story. Once again, like the previous ones, this chapter is full of all my stupid and crazy ideas and plans.  
**

**Enjoy!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

"I don't believe this!" exclaimed the dark haired witch, her face contorted in an angry scowl. "I, the great Pansy Parkinson, is about to wash this abandoned girl's lavatory?" The distaste she felt even at the mention of such a menial job was evident in the grimace the older witch was sporting. "What is it with you Gryffindors and spooky lavatories, anyway?" Pansy muttered, as she crossed her hands over her chest, while throwing looks of disgust at her surroundings.

"Oh, shut up!" shouted Ginny, glaring angrily at the other witch. "In case you have already forgotten, McGonagall is not the head of the Gryffindor house anymore, my eldest brother is. Minerva McGonagall is the Headmistress of this school, who might I add, ordered _us_ to clean all the girls' toilets as detention. I'm not going to be doing all the work alone, so get a move on before I bring down Moaning Myrtle on you." With that, Ginny Weasley turned around, and began scrubbing the unused yet dirty basins.

"Bring down _who_?" Pansy inquired, sure there was air in ears, as she didn't remember ever hearing anything about any Myrtle, moaning or not.

"The insensitive fire-head is talking about me," answered a sneering voice from one of the cubicles. Startled, Pansy turned towards the direction of the voice, and shrieked in fright as she saw the pale, almost translucent figure floating up in the air. Ginny simply rolled her eyes and continued cleaning the basins, not even bothering to look back at the ghost that had once so generously offered to share her bathroom with Harry.

"Wha...what _are_ you?" Pansy croaked, finally managing to get the words, after her voice had gone hoarse from all the screaming.

"Considering you are with the she-cat there," Myrtle replied, "you must have been at Hogwarts for the last seven years. Don't tell me you have never seen an enchanting ghost before?" Ginny snorted at that, but Myrtle decided to ignore it. Instead, she gave Pansy a stern look which looked eerily like McGonagall's, and said, "Silly girl." Then Moaning Myrtle turned and dove into a nearby commode, splashing water all around.

"Ewe," Pansy screeched, before running as far away as possible from the funny-colored water.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said Ginny, as she looked at Pansy sardonically. "We are here to clean the toilets, remember? And without magic, too. Since I'll not be cleaning anything that the bloody Myrtle has graced with, you will have to do the job." Ginny then gave Pansy an innocent look before moving onto another basin.

"You can't be serious," muttered Pansy, though already aware that her soon to be sister in law was very serious and that Pansy would indeed be cleaning the just-spoiled bathroom cubicle. "Why do you hate the _enchanting_ ghost, by the way? What is it that you have against her?"

"She fancies Harry," replied Ginny with a scowl, "and even wanted him to die during our second year so that she could share a bathroom with him. Hmm," Ginny sneered, exaggerating Myrtle's faults as usual, "as if Harry would ever want the old hag over me. The only reason he even entered her foul bathroom was so that he could save _me_."

All these were too much information for Pansy, as she had never really bothered to find out before what had happened in their second year. She had been a pure-blood, and she was sure that that meant she was safe. And since she never bothered with it before, why would she start now? Plus, Ginny was still mumbling about how she was the only girl for Harry Potter, and also planning on finding ways to get rid of ghosts, or rather one in particular.

Pansy thought it was the perfect distraction for her to use some magic and clean up her side of the filthy bathroom. The sooner she got her job done, the faster she could move onto the next one._ One bathroom down, and probably a thousand more to go,_ Pansy thought with a wretched sigh.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

If Pansy thought she was having a hard time, it was nothing compared to how Draco Malfoy was feeling at the moment. Currently, he was lying on one of the pristine white cotton sheets that Poppy Pomfrey used on the beds in the hospital wing. However, it was not the bleached sheets that had put the Slytherin Prince in a foul mood, though one had to admit the smell was rather awful in the chamber he was in. The problem was not even Pansy's devious way of offering and making Draco drink some weird potion that morning that had his hormones in quite a frenzy - Pansy was going to die a slow and painful death in his hands soon enough, anyways.

No, the problem was quite near and quite big even if he did think so himself. And it was drawing quite a bit of attention, however, in an ironic sort of way. Because of his predicament, everyone - from Madame Pomfrey to Horace Slughorn, from the fucking Bill Weasley to his _lovely_ fiancee, Hermione Granger - was avoiding looking at him. The former three were still busy muttering to themselves, probably still looking for ways to cure him and his soon to be wife, where else the said future bride was staring resolutely at the ceiling.

It really was not fair, thought Draco irritably.

_Why is it that when a guy got aroused, the world could see the proof, but no such evidence could be seen in a girl's case?_

Draco was even more angry because he knew that not only was his arousal was because of some bloody potion, that was what he kept telling himself, but he wasn't the only one with a frenzied libido. He knew it because he had felt her up. Hermione Granger had not only sported hardened nipples, but when he was being torn away from her, he had brushed his hands over her womanhood, purely by mistake of course, he had felt her wetness too.

_So why was he the only one getting humiliated?_

First of all, it was embarrassing how the three older witch and wizards couldn't pull him off Granger. He tried, he really did, to let go of her, but it appeared his mind and his ... err head that lived down _there_ had other ideas. Draco had simply been unable to get his hands off the mu...muggleborn.

Secondly, that Weasley character had hit him with a few choice hexes to loosen his grips for a few seconds and had used that time to sent him flying on one of the beds and bound him to the said bed. Once again, it was something that had aggravated Draco greatly.

_Why couldn't the so-called-awesome Professor hex Granger too?_

But no, the lioness of Gryffindor was treated as if she was some easily damaged, delicate flower_. _Granger was a bloody war-heroin, for Salazar's sake! She could have easily handles a few hexes. But of course, she was a Gryffindor, and crucial in bringing down Voldemort, so obviously she was given the VIP treatment, where else curses were thrown right and left at Draco.

Not only that, but when his future wife had whimpered and then had actually growled, which was the only plus point of the day's events as it had done Draco's ego a lot of good, as she was being pulled away from him, Granger was gently placed in another bed and was only bound after Slughorn had administered a potion that had knocked her out. _No tight ropes appearing out of thin air and cutting off oxygen supply for the Gryffindor princess_, Draco thought nastily.

However, the worst part was that though there were about ten beds separating him from Granger - Pomfrey seemed to think that that would be the best move considering their situation, his body was yet unable to accept the fact and still clamored for the female third of the Golden Trio. Draco had no idea what disgusted him more - the fact that he craved Granger's touch, or that he was currently sporting a massive...er...er...erection.

Now, Draco was truly mad - he couldn't believe he actually had a hard-on for Granger. She was not tall, or attractive or most importantly, she was not blond. In the wizarding community, it was known country wide, maybe even world wide, how the Malfoys were famous for their blond hair. It was like a trademark of the Malfoys. Naturally, to preserve this unique trait which made the Malfoy men way better looking than any average Pothead or Weasels, the Malfoy heirs always ensured that they married blond women so that the next generation would end up being as good looking as their ancestors.

The goblet, of course, had messed up that opportunity and all Draco could do was hope, since he was not one for praying. Still, it didn't mean he had to lust after his fiancee. If his children didn't end up with his blond hair, dashing good looks and natural charm, he could always blame it on Granger and how he was forced to marry her. But salivating for skin contact with her would make him look like a pussy-whipped wizard, and Malfoys never chased after women, and most definitely not after beaver-toothed, bushy-haired, bossy know-it-alls.

_Oh, how unfair life was!_

There was only one way to make the mess seem insignificant and the day a bit brighter. Pansy Parkinson was going to die. Draco would tear her from limb to limb, pull all her hair out, and watch her die in the cold wet dungeons of a scary castle, it didn't matter that Hogwarts was a castle and the Slytherin common room was in the dungeons, while Draco rubbed his hands together evilly and laughed like a maniac in the background.

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Harry, Ron, Neville, Dean and Seamus were sitting in a circle in their dorm room, smuggled firewhiskey bottles lying haphazardly all around them. Currently the five room mates were in the middle of a game - one that had become their favorite in the last hour or so.

The game was called 'Remember when Malfoy...' and as one could guess, the whole idea of the game was to bash Malfoy. All five boys were taking great pleasure in the game as they recounted tales from their previous school years.

"Remember when Malfoy was sent flying as Harry sent a curse at him while they were dueling in our second year?" Dean said and the boys laughed their heads off.

"Good times, oh yeah, they were good times," piped in Ron, a glazed look etched on his face, probably either wishing it had been him against Malfoy, or that Harry had AK-ed him during that time.

"Remember when Malfoy was punched in the face by Hermione in our third year?" Harry added, and the howls of laughter continued.

"Remember when Malfoy was turned into a ferret by Moody in our fourth year?" said Ron and the boys were practically rolling on the floor, they were laughing so hard. Had they been sober, they would have realized that the game was not very funny, but the amount of alcohol content inside their bodies was so high, that anything said against Malfoy would set them off into a laughing frenzy.

"Remember when Malfoy looked shocked and furious when Ron helped Gryffindor win the Quidditch game in our fifth year?" Seamus supplied, and the ensuing sound that followed could be heard from the Gryffindor common room.

"Remember when Malfoy tried to gatecrash Slughorn's party?" Neville said, looking happy, maybe because for once he had felt more important and powerful than the Slytherin pureblood. Harry, however, didn't join in the laughter as he also remembered the other events that took place that year. Looking at his best friend, Ron seemed to quiet down too.

"Remember when Malfoy seemed reluctant to identify us when we got captured and taken to Malfoy Manor?" Ron asked, staring up at the windows, a faraway look on his face. Dean had been on the run too, and knew what Ron was talking about. However, despite their current mental state, Neville and Seamus seemed interested as they were the only two who didn't know the full story. Harry, though, didn't want to elaborate.

"Guess he's not that bad, huh?" Dean murmured, even though he didn't expect anyone to reply. He was not disappointed. Seamus, uncomfortable with the awkward silence, did what he could to lighten the moment. As always, he didn't manage to do a good job.

"Remember when Malfoy kissed Hermione today in front of everyone?" With that, he burst out laughing. Thirty seconds later, he realized he was the only one doing so. Dean and Neville began to slowly shake their heads at him in a resigned manner.

"Mate, did you have to?" Ron asked, scowling.

"And just when we were beginning to like him too," Harry finished with a grimace.

**A/N: So, how was it? I feel like I'm losing my touch :(.**


	16. Finally Admitting It!

**A/N: Hi. Sorry for the late update :(. Once again, thanks for the lovely reviews. I read them all and they make me very happy :). **

**Now, I read the books quite some time ago, so I'll probably make a lot of mistakes. The color of Felix Felicis was one of them. All I remembered were the movies, and since the vial seemed to contain a colorless liquid, that's the one that stuck in my mind. **

**Another thing is that, in this story, the marriage law is mainly to repopulate the wizarding world, not to mix the blood status. Hence, there are some pureblood-pureblood pairings, like Ron-Pansy and Neville-Luna. **

**Still, in this story, the Goblet of Fire had every information about all witches and wizards and the couples were matched (in my opinion :D) due to similar age, personality, mental maturity and capability, etc.**

**Hope that cleared up some of the confusions.**

**Now, I feel like the story is not moving fast enough. So, I'm taking the story forward to Halloween. If you remember, the current time line of the story is October (1998). I'll let the characters (only Hermione and Ginny in this chapter) speak what happened after they got out of the hospital, but the events in this chapter takes place on 31st October.**

**Anyways, hope you all like it.**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

Hermione was currently carving a pumpkin, although very reluctantly**. **Though widely considered the Brightest Witch of her Age, craftsmanship of such a nature was not a talent she possessed. However, Ginny Weasley was a force to be reckoned with. If the red headed witch decided that something should be done, she usually got the job done. And the future Mrs Potter had decided that they needed to socialize with their fellow Gryffindors, namely Lavender and Parvati among others, and so here Hermione was, cutting triangles out of an empty pumpkin shell. Apparently, it was the only thing she could do - all it took was three different strokes. Hmm, maybe Ginny would be able to fix them and use the succession of triangles as the smile for the Jack-o'-lanterns.

Parvati and Lavender were carving witches on the pumpkins, with crystal balls and all, and Hermione thought the fortune tellers looked eerily like Professor Trelawney**. **Ginny, on the other hand, was carving out letters on the pumpkins that seemed to read something like 'Weasleys and Potters are the Best'. Hermione narrowed her eyes at the younger witch, but Ginny seemed to totally ignore her.

Hermione cleared her throat loudly then, to get the younger witch's attention.

"What?" Ginny asked, looking all innocent.

"Only Weasleys and Potters?"

"Oh, come on," Ginny replied, tossing her straight long hair behind her back, "you know Granger is quite the mouthful. And other than the fact that you are not one yet, we both know that Malfoys are a lot of things, but they are definitely not the best wizards around...unless of course, it comes to manipulation, and deceit, and treachery, and being snobby, and ..."

"Okay, okay," huffed Hermione, "let's get this stupid job done with. How many more do you want me to do?" As the brown-haired girl busied herself with creating yet more triangles on another pumpkin, Ginny Weasley smiled knowingly. She had no idea what had happened that day after her best friend-cum-almost sister got dragged off to the hospital wing with Draco Malfoy. Bill wouldn't tell, and Harry and Ron were stupid enough not to have sneaked and found out. Still, there seemed to be something there between the two, simmering just beneath surface, but ready to come out in the open any time. Ginny was just waiting for the right time, and hoped she was around to watch when Hermione and Draco kissed each other savagely - not because they were under the influence of some potion, but because they simply couldn't help themselves.

Ginny was sure it would happen soon, and she couldn't wait to be proved right. She was sure the attraction came to a head when both Pansy and she had interfered, and according to Ginny, it was so worth the punishment they had received from McGonagall.

The truth was, Ginny wasn't off the mark by far. Hermione didn't need to be a mind reader to know what Ginny was thinking. As clever as she thought herself to be, Ginny forgot who she was dealing with. They didn't call Hermione the Brightest Witch of her Age for nothing.

Things_ had_ come to a head that day and Brightest Witch of her Age or not, Hermione was clever enough to have figured it out quite quickly. However, that didn't mean she was ready to accept it. Draco Malfoy, after all, was not only a former Death Eater, but was also the wizard who had made over the first six years of Hermione's life at Hogwarts a living hell. He couldn't do it in their seventh year because Hermione hadn't returned last year to complete her studies. She was sure he would have tried to kill her had she turned up the previous year.

A small part of Hermione's mind told her that when they had been captured and taken to Malfoy Manor during the war, Draco Malfoy had been reluctant to identify her and her friends, but Hermione quickly shut that voice up. Some people didn't change, and Draco Malfoy was most certainly one of them. If he had indeed turned over into a new leaf, he would never have physically abused her that day in the dark corridor.

What Hermione refused to understand was why she suddenly found herself lusting after her fiance. Was he really that great a kisser? Did he really have the magic touch, such that the moment his fingers touched her skin, she felt like she was on fire? Was she really the kind of girl to get turned on by a husky, male voice?

Merlin, but what was happening to her? Since when did she start behaving like a sexually deprived, lusty pervert?

_Wait, did she just say that about herself? Did she really think of herself as a pervert?_

Suddenly Hermione felt a tingling sensation go up her spine, and a ticklish feeling seemed to settle in her stomach. Yeah, those were the best words she could come up with to describe what she was feeling. It was not like she read a lot of cheesy, romance novels. So, yes, that was what she was feeling - a bit tingly, a bit ticklish. And all she did was think about how it felt when Malfoy had pressed his rock hard body to hers when under the influence of that stupid potion of Ginny's.

Her cheeks reddened slightly at the memory. Hermione distinctly remembered what else she had felt when she was almost fused with Draco Malfoy.

_Oh dear Godric, she _was_ a pervert! What should she do now?_

Ever since that incident in the great hall, Hermione had tried her best to avoid her future husband. It was not an easy job, considering how they had to sit together while eating or when in class. And then there were their dancing lessons. Just thinking about them made her wince.

_(First dancing lesson)_

"_You need to put your right hand on his shoulder, dear," Andromeda said, smiling at the couple in front of her, "and you need to put your left hand on her waist. Yes, just like that. I believe the lessons that Minerva had given a few years back were not much useful, huh?" The older witch chuckled lightly at that, shook her head slightly, and then moved on to Neville and Luna._

_Hermione was already quite red at the close proximity with Draco. She had not been this close to him since the fiasco in the great hall. Draco, however, seemed oblivious to her discomfort and pulled her closer, as they began to sway to the music._

_(Second dancing lesson)_

"_Yes dear, just like that," exclaimed Andromeda, delightedly. "Now twirl her once, and then pull her back flat against your chest. There, perfect!" _

_Their teacher might have been happy with their performance, but Hermione was not. She didn't like it when she was this close to Draco Malfoy. It made her feel all hot and bothered._

_(Third dancing lesson)_

"_Marvelous! Oh, don't you two look just perfect together," their dance instructor cried happily. "Now, wrap...oops, sorry dears, just stepped on my robe...now, where was I? Oh yes, I remember. Now, Draco dear, wrap your arms around Hermione's waist, pull her closer...yes, yes, exactly like that...and slowly move your bodies to the music. Let the rhythm take over your bodies."_

It was like as if they were not being taught how to dance, but rather getting a lesson on how to sexually arouse your partner. Too bad Draco didn't seem to be affected by it. Hermione sighed. She couldn't believe she was the only one suffering the side effects of their so-called brilliant dancing classes.

"Hey, what happened?"

Hermione looked up to see a concerned looking Ginny staring at her. Parvati and Lavender were giving her odd looks, too.

"Uh...uh, nothing," Hermione replied weakly, her mind still filled with inappropriate thoughts of her fiancé, something that made her feel thoroughly confused.

Ginny stared hard at her for a moment, seemed to make up her mind about something, and got up.

"Alright girls, it was a lot of fun carving these pumpkins together, but now I think we should go to bed," Ginny said as she addressed their fellow Gryffindors. "It's way past midnight, which reminds me, it's already Halloween, girls. Anyways, we want to make sure we can use these pumpkins for decoration tomorrow, and that won't happen if we spend it sleeping. So, let's call it a night already."

Ginny didn't wait around to hear what the others thought of her hasty goodbye and exit. In fact, she needed alone time with Hermione, and the only way to get it was to get back to their dorm before the others had a chance to finish their work. So, Ginny simply stood up, pulled Hermione out of her chair, and dragged her towards their dormitory.

"Ginny, what are you doing?" Hermione panted, as she was quickly being rushed up the stairs. She was no athlete, and she wished the Gryffindor chaser would remember that, preferably some time soon.

"We needed to get away from Parvati and Lavender," Ginny replied, once they were safely inside their dorm. Hermione rubbed the spot on her arm where Ginny had been holding while bringing her up here.

"Yeah, well, there's a reason I don't play Quidditch, remember? So, no rushing from now on," Hermione muttered crossly. Ginny just rolled her eyes at that.

"I thought it was because you are afr...err, don't like flying," Ginny said, her eyes twinkling mischievously.

"Oh say it out loud, why don't you?" Hermione huffed, now crossing her arms across her chest. "Since when do you care about being tactful? But honestly speaking, I'm _not_ afraid of flying. I just like Thestrals better." Hermione bit her lower lip then. "Though I wish I never had any reason to be able to see them." Ginny sighed.

"Look, this conversation is totally going off topic now. Forget about the Thestrals, forget about the war." Ginny murmured. "Now tell me what was bothering you downstairs, and don't you dare think of lying to me, Hermione Granger."

Ginny now took on an aggressive pose, but even if she hadn't, Hermione wasn't going to lie to her. True, it was Harry and Ron who were her best friends, but sometimes, a girl needs another girl to keep her sanity in check. And Ginny was her best girl friend.

"I...I think...I think I like Draco Malfoy."

**A/N: Let me how it was, please :)**


	17. Plan in motion!

**A/N: Hi :D. ****Yep, it's an actual update you are looking at ;). I'll try and keep it coming every week. Not making any promises, though, as I tend to break them a lot :(.**

**So, you guys seemed to like the last chapter, even if I did hear that I need to add a little bit more humor and make the chapters longer. I'm not complaining, in fact, I've actually been thinking about how to spice things up a bit. I wasn't feeling very inspirational, and my sense of humor seemed to dry up too :(.**

**Anyways, it really makes me nervous 'cause I'm not sure whether you are gonna like this one or not. See, we take a look into Draco's mind here, and let's face it, he can't turn into a good guy over night. Plus, it's still October, and we have till summer before they need to tie the knot. Plus, what's a romance without some good to honest fight in it. I promise you though, there will be no angst, adultery (if it can be called that) etc of any kind. **

**However, there will be a bit of jealousy and some real ass-kicking in later chapters ;). **

**But all of that, later on. Now let's take look into Draco's devious mind.**

**P.S. One of you mentioned something about the error in punctuation. Thanks :). I hadn't realized my mistake before. Anyways, I went back and fixed it up. Do not hesitate to point them out in the future. I really don't mind :).  
**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

Draco Malfoy lounged lazily in the Slytherin common room, as he waited for his friends to show up. Tonight, there was a party, well sort of, in the Hogwarts great hall in honor of celebrating Halloween. He didn't really like to dress up in silly costumes, but there would be dancing tonight, and he really was looking forward to it.

It would be nothing like the Yule Ball, but rather a feast with dancing as one of the many attractions for the night. There would be other things too, like Halloween themed plays, board games, competition for best costumes and so on.

Naturally, Goyle wanted to attend the feast for the sole purpose of eating delicious food. Luckily, or unluckily for his dumb friend, Millicent wanted to attend for the same reason. Nott, however, said he would like to play board games there. Draco hadn't really understood at first, until he found out that Nott had harbored a secret crush on Pansy for ages. Since Pansy had taken a liking to her fiance these days, Nott decided he wanted to challenge Ron Weasley in a game of chess, win the game against him, and show Pansy who the better wizard was.

Draco would have snorted, but he decided it was not a very Malfoy-ish thing to do. Nott was not only forgetting that he had a fiance of his own, but that chess was Ron Weasley's single greatest strength. Draco Malfoy was not stupid, and even if he never admitted it aloud, at least in his mind he could accept that when it came to chess, Ron Weasley was the best. At least, among the students of Hogwarts. Hell, no one could beat the old hag McGonagall in chess and live to tell the tale. But Ron Weasley had...and in their first year, too. So as much as Draco would like to see someone beat the shit out of the Weasel King, he knew that in this case, Nott would be the one to have his ass handed back to himself.

Pansy was looking forward to the play, as it was supposed to be a scary one, and the dark haired witch planned to cause some real mischief in there. She had cackled like an evil lunatic when relaying this news, and Draco hoped to Salazar that he wasn't anywhere near her when Pansy carried out whatever evil deed she had in mind. Draco's life was complicated enough as it was, he didn't need to get involved in her wrong doings.

Blaise, on the other hand, wanted to attend tonight's celebration because of the dress competition. For some reason, Blaise had decided he wanted to be awarded the winner, and the wizard had spent the beat part of last week trying to come up with some thing impressive.

In the end, seeing as it would be all witches - Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, Padma Patil, Cho Chang, Pansy Parkinson, Daphne Greengrass, Susan Bones, and Hannah Abbott - who would be judging the competition, Blaise had decided to go as a vampire. His reasoning was that that ever since some four-part vampire novel had hit the bookstores, and consequently been made into movies - something that muggles and muggle-born witches and wizards liked to watch for entertainment purpose - girls were crazy about anything to do with vampires.

Blaise even went to Professor Slughorn and borrowed something called a laptop and a thin, round, shiny object called a dvd, and made Draco watch the so called _movies_. Draco had never been so insulted in his life. After all, not only was he a Slytherin, but he was also a Malfoy. And even if Slytherins, like Slughorn and Zabini, stooped so low as to indulge in muggle products, Malfoys most certainly did not. If Zabini hadn't saved his ass many times in the years that he had known the annoying wizard, Draco most certainly would not have watched those damn movies. Thank Merlin, Granger didn't know about what he had done. Otherwise, he would never live down the shame of it all.

Anyways, from what Draco could surmise, it was not the story so much that got the witches captivated, but rather the vampire guy himself. He knew this not because he himself was attracted to that yellow-eyed bloke or something like that, but because the fellow reminded him greatly of Cedric Diggory. It was like the guy was an older version of Diggory or something, minus the eye-color, of course. And Cedric Diggory had been a hit with the ladies, even before he got chosen as one of the Hogwarts Champion. Too bad the wizard had been too shy to manipulate his situation with the witches to his advantage. Had it been Draco, he would have taken full advantage of it and bedded as many females as he desired.

_Stop it, Draco_.

Draco jumped, startled. He didn't know whether it was his conscience berating him or not, as the voice seemed very feminine. Surely, his conscience would have a masculine voice? It sounded as if it was his mother admonishing him. Or was it Hermione's voice that he had heard?

_Hermione_.

Draco smiled in a feral manner as he thought of that name. Even a few months ago, that name would have left a bitter taste in his mouth, and he probably would try to distract himself by admiring the younger sister of a certain classmate of his. But those days were long gone. Draco didn't care for gorgeous faces and sexy bodies anymore. Blonds didn't appeal to him nowadays. Come to think of it, they hadn't for sometime, considering the younger Greengrass witch was a brunette.

The only female Draco was interested in these days was his fiancee.

No, he was not in love with Hermione Granger, but he had her right where he wanted her. Actually, not yet, since they would have to wait till they were married before Draco could get her where he_ really_ wanted her, but that was just a matter of time. Who knew, if he played his cards right, Draco might actually be married by Christmas...and on his way to becoming the powerful Malfoy once again.

Draco had been really pissed off when Pansy had pulled that stunt on him and he had gone all love sick. He had been so enraged that day that he was sure he would have murdered Pansy the moment he got released from the hospital wing. Luck, however, had been on the cunning witch's side...even though Pansy herself didn't think so.

Apparently, Pansy had gotten detention with Red, and the form of their punishment had been to clean all the girl's toilets of Hogwarts, except those in forbidden territories of the school. The dark haired witch had returned from her task shortly after Draco got into the Slytherin common room, and she had reeked of...well, wastes of living organisms. Draco, along with most of the inhabitants of their dungeon common room, had ran as far from Pansy as possible, and the witch herself had her face contorted from all the bad smell.

If he was correct, Pansy had burned the outfit she had been wearing that day - school uniform and all, and had apparently taken a shower for over five hours, using shampoos, and soaps, and bubbles baths, and fragrant oils and whatever else she could find in her many trunks and suitcases.

And she had done it everyday for the rest of the week.

That had given Draco time to calm down, and he eventually realized that Pansy had gotten more that she deserved from McGonagall, and he really didn't need to make her suffer anymore. Especially because Pansy's stunt had proved to be quite advantageous for him.

During breakfast that morning, Draco had been embarrassed as hell for his intense kissing and groping, and later on, didn't know how to proceed with his fiancee. He was sure things would be awkward between them, and Draco much preferred the antagonism that had been between them before.

As he had suspected, things _were_ weird when he met Hermione for the first time after getting out of the hospital wing, but Draco had already noticed a difference in his future wife. Where Hermione had been plain rude to start with, and progressed to simply ignoring him, after the whole kissing fiasco, Hermione seemed silent. Not the way before, when she simply wanted to get her work done and be left alone, but rather like as if she wanted to be with him but didn't know how to go about it.

Draco's suspicions were further confirmed when they started to have their dance classes with his estranged aunt. He had been worried about it at first, but Andromeda Black-Tonks didn't seem at all perturbed by him. On the contrary, the witch was all nice and motherly towards. Draco had been a bit spooked at first. Andromeda Black-Tonks looked more like Bellatrix Lestrange than his mother, and it was as like seeing his deceased loony aunt trying to be maternal.

Soon though, Draco got over his fear, and actually was a bit jealous of Hermione since she seemed to have a really good relationship with his older aunt. Draco didn't like to admit it, but he sometimes wished there were more people around when he was growing up, and not just his parents. House-elves never really made up for great playmates, especially since he was taught to treat them like filth.

But that was neither here nor there, and Draco was hardly the type to bother with what happened in his past. He was the kind who let bygones be bygones and looked forward to new opportunities to benefit himself and his family.

And Hermione Granger played right into his hands. If Draco was upset with how familiar his aunt was with Granger instead of himself, he felt instantly better when he realized that he _was_ right, and whether she liked or not, Hermione Granger did fancy him.

It was so obvious from the way she behaved while they danced. A little touch here, a little touch there, and Draco could clearly see the goosebumps on her flesh, and also knew that they had nothing to do with the approaching winter. He had almost laughed out loud when he had seen her covered from head to toe in their second dance lesson. Hermione really underestimated him if she thought a piece of clothing was barrier enough to keep his hands from finding her soft skin. It was not as if Hermione ever wore dresses or skirts. She always wore jeans, teamed up with either a blouse or a t-shirt and some sweater or jacket to keep her body warm.

If Draco had been able to arouse her while she was wearing a half-sleeve top, he could do so while she wore a full sleeve one too. The arms and hands were hardly the most erogenous zones, after all. The neck, behind the ears, the sliver of exposed skin between her top and jean - now, those were definitely provocative places. A mere brush of his finger, and Hermione had arched her back and flushed her breasts on his chest.

She had immediately pulled away and didn't look him in the eye for the rest of their dance class, but Draco knew what he had already suspected.

On their third dance lesson, Draco had actually laughed before sobering up when he had seen her hide even those areas that he had taken great enjoyment in touching before. Hermione was wearing a turtle-neck, hence covering her neck, and her once-bushy-but-now-curly had almost hid ears, as she didn't put her hair up like before. The top also extended till her thighs, so no bare skin there either.

Even then, Draco had not been deterred, and had actually gone for the kill. That time around, although pretending he had not noticed what he had done, Draco smoothly managed not only to rub his fingers over breasts, but between her legs too. By the time the class had ended, Draco was sure Hermione would need to spend some time in the girls bathroom to 'cool off', for he surely needed it. However, despite his urgent need to spend some quality time in the boys lavatory, Draco did not forget to put his next step in motion. Before his fiancee could run off, Draco, as sweetly as was possible for him, had asked Hermione to partner him for the Halloween feast.

One look at Hermione's eyes, and it was easy to see she had conceded defeat before her body's needs. The witch had agreed, given him the time when to pick her up, turned around to walk away...but not before looking back and giving him a slight, shy, smile. Draco had smirked.

Things had just gotten easier for him, and they were about to get spectacular.

**A/N: LOL. Sorry, but I couldn't help myself with the 'Twilight' reference :D, even though I know the events in this chapter took place (1998) before 'Twilight' (2005) came out.**

**Also, I found that I can write better when not writing from the Gryffindors' POV. What do you guys think? Am I right or not?**

**Anyways, let me how it was, please :)**


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